Track2Realty Exclusive: The realty sector may call it freeze of creative liberty but the proposed penalty clause in regulator bill on misleading ads can also bring much-needed facelift to the sector. Track2Realty takes up the issue with the industry representatives to understand why they are scared with the misleading ads clause in the proposed bill. Is it really about curbing the creativity or an attempt to rationalise over promises by the developers?
Aman Varma bought a house in one of the upmarket locations of Gurgaon, only to realise later that his quest for a dream home that was shown in the project advertising in one of the leading newspapers was just that—a dream.
Not only the project elevation that was showcased in the advertisement was fake but many specifications and features clearly defined in the ad were missing in the flat. Today, he repents his decision to go by the misleading advertisements, and not insist on drafting all promises with the offer document itself.
Aman is not alone who is the victim of misleading advertisement, nor is the real estate only sector where the creative liberty of showcasing aspiration is more often than not leading to false/misleading information. From a face wash that promises making you fairer overnight to a deodorant that claims to make women fall all over you with its fragrance, advertising is all about creating an aspiration which more often than not fails to live up to its tall claims and resultant expectations.
Why then real estate alone is being targeted in the name of misleading advertisement? A reported provision in the proposed law to regulate the real estate sector is to send individual or a company to jail for “misleading” advertisements. Another reported provision would not even allow a developer to put up a picture, other than that of the project.
As expected, the realty sector has reacted strongly against the freeze of creative liberty by the proposed regulator. They have termed the move as a retrograde and adversarial step for investment in the realty sector.
The developers’ grouse is that it would be open to misuse by a few corrupt officials. It is envisioned that any official, if one so feels and interprets it like that can call it misleading and book a criminal case against the company or an individual.
Lodging a strong opposition to any such proposal, the ASSOCHAM says if advertisements for all products and services are created on some aspirational attributes of the society and individuals, those aspirations as depicted in the advertisements can be real or can be purely “aspirational”.
“This is a very peculiar and not a constructive idea. If a realty project has to be hard-sold and a happy family is shown in the ad insertion, nothing should be perceived as misleading in it. The entire marketing of a large number of products is based on aspirations of consumers. How do you sell houses and commercial space only by showing the projects when they are in construction stage? Should the developers show only the concrete and iron and the labour on the site.” ASSOCHAM says.
Dr Anil Sharma, CMD of Amrapali Group and Vice President, CREDAI (Delhi-NCR) says the developers who have to be in the business have to be customer friendly to their precious buyers.
Most of the prominent developers clearly display the reliable information such as map approval, date of allotment, layout plan details along with artistic, real image, actual and construction site picture with any released advertisements that help readers and buyers to get a very true image of project while no other sector follows this ethical rule.
“It will make things so complicated and misleading to all if regulator will be allowed to judge advertisements by inexperienced person. It is a highly concerned matter, so it should be watched by skilled professionals. I must say again that real estate is a highly unorganised sector and industry status is quite required to get edifying all developers on buyers’ friendly track. Prominent developers always take care of their buyers’ interest while releasing advertisements and contain true information. Here, the mushrooming small builders are the major bottlenecks, who usually hide the truth from their buyers,” says Sharma.
…to be continued
