Track2Realty Exclusive: While the provision of a real estate regulator snowballed into a political controversy over the jurisdiction of centre-state relations, some sector analysts believe the developers have hurt their own cause by stiff resistance to the appointment of a central regulator.
What the sector perceived as a draconian instrument to tame their independent functioning, could actually have benefitted them in their quest for getting industry status and thus facilitating free flow of finance, including bank loan. Has it been a case of lack of informed choice for the sector, and hence policy resistance instead of policy advocacy?
Privately some of the developers admit that had the builders’ bodies came on board with the government this could have been a blessing in disguise. While it would have weeded out the fly-by-night operators out of the business, a regulator in place would have served three purpose—taking sector close to getting much sought after industry status, timely approval (after advocating for a level playing field for all state holders) and removing funding gap in the sector with clean money.
However, the absence of consensus within the sector made the initial low tone resistance of many of the states go loud and then buckling under pressure from states, the Centre decided to allow them to set up their own grievance redressal mechanism to protect property buyers’ interests from unscrupulous realtors.
This U-turn of the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, by dropping the original provision to set up a central real estate appellate tribunal, only ensured the sector remains as a local business with no industry status in near future.
Had the sector evolved a policy advocacy formula, both at Centre and State level, most of the state governments would not have gone overboard to declare it as an infringement over the federal structure since real estate is a major contributor to the state coffers. What apparently seems to be the Centre’s plan to regulate the real estate sector by safeguarding consumers from land sharks hitting a road block, has actually been a case of policy advocacy failure for the sector itself.
