Diary of a real estate journalist
CREDAI as a real estate industry body fails miserably time & again to gain public & policy level acceptance. Reason: Shady builders have more often than not been operating as the elected office bearers of CREDAI. The situation is all the more grave with CREDAI NCR team that believes in convince, confuse or corrupt philosophy of public, policy & media engagement. In his diary of a real estate journalist, Ravi Sinha highlights how focus on projection than perception change at the ground has been the nemesis of CREDAI in general and CREDAI NCR in particular.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India, or in popular parlance CREDAI, represents a business that is arguably the dirtiest in the country. It’s not that the builders don’t know about it; they don’t bother to care about it till it does affect their bottom lines. Every now and then when they are up against the slow-moving market, or at the receiving end of the policy, they cry hoarse. The quest has always been to be seen as a victim. Media turns out to be “Negative”, as if deserting the consumer cause and joining the cocktail gang of builders is the only certificate of being positive.
When the victim card doesn’t go well with the collective consciousness, the builders first threaten the section that they think is most vulnerable – the buyers. An Indian home buyer who has not been harassed and/or insulted by the builder is a rare lucky creature. “Ham de rahe hain na” (At least I am giving you the house) is so rightfully claimed as if not giving is also an option after having pocketed the money of the gullible buyers.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Media has not supported the home buyers’ causes to the desired level. And hence, it is no wonder that the media too is threatened by the builders in their own ways & means. In the late 2008, the real estate industry body CREDAI met the editors of various national media to overtly threaten what could be termed as revenue black out.
“If your media publishes negative stories, we the CREDAI members will stop doing business with you,” was the stern warning. The builders’ bluff failed flat at their face as CREDAI has always been a motley crowd and serves no better purpose than the cocktail parties.
Those CREDAI members who had the urgency to advertise with project launches in hand went ahead to flout the diktat of the industry body. Privately, CREDAI members fought with each other over the issue. In the end, they yet again took a moral high ground and started calling for self-regulation.
The clarion call for self-regulation was also a façade of high morality in the wake of the RERA approaching fast. The developers till then had absolutely no idea as to how RERA will pan out and whether or not they will be in a position to get their way out. After all, delaying the inevitable and getting away with lengthy and expensive legal battle has always been their expertise. CREDAI then Chairman at a public event, in presence of the then Union Housing Minister, even mocked RERA as builder harassment and public amusement bill.
Much water has flown since then but the class & character of CREDAI has not changed yet. They talk big about perception change of builders but are unwilling to change and adopt the best practices. Worse even, a handful of relatively cleaner developers at CREDAI who look credible voices are also chicken hearted to rock the boat and antagonize the large universe of the erring builders. It is hence no surprise that the focus has always been on media projection than perception changed on ground.
How many times CREDAI has engaged with the policy makers for any meaningful change? Their delegations and representations to the ministries are nothing more than the photo-ops, and in some cases liaison for self. It is hilarious as to how prior to every Union Budget the builders under CREDAI gang up with their charter of what could be conveniently called unreasonable demands. Post Budget when none of the demands are granted, they echo the Budget to be historic. I wish someone could show the CREDAI office bearers the mirror.
Anyways, CREDAI officials have the habit of biting more than what they can chew. Issues like industry status, infrastructure status, single window clearances etc are slap on the faces of respective CREDAI office bearers over the years. If you question their duality and shallow existence, they threaten back with “sue you to silence you” gesture.
Does CREDAI have the guts to deny entry to builders that have low C-SAT (Consumer Satisfaction) score? Can CREDAI show spines to not allow shady operators contest to be office bearers? There are more questions than what CREDAI could probably afford to answer. But what could definitely be vouchsafed is the fact that CREDAI stands as nothing more than a cocktail group of builders.
I have a few questions with CREDAI elected office bearers. Since they are chicken hearted to face brutal honest journalists, these questions are in public domain:
Q. Why are tainted builders being elected as the office bearers of CREDAI?
Q. Is there any criterion to filter the cleaner builders from the rest before electing CREDAI office bearers?
Q. What happened to the holier than thou claims of self-regulation by CREDAI?
Q. What all has CREDAI done on ground for image makeover and perception management?
Q. How many CREDAI elected office bearers have issues of delay/default in their projects?
A rebel journalist
Ravi Sinha
#RaviTrack2Media
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
Subscribe our YouTube Channel @ https://bit.ly/2tDugGl
