Bottom Line: The understanding of best practices is very archaic in the Indian real estate. The intent is even more conservative and hence Track2Realty observes that the sector has miles to go before they can look forward to adopt some of the globally accepted best practices.
“Once the customers become captive, the builders start fleecing them. I have already held in the case of DLF that this conduct is called ‘after market abuse’. This is a fit case of abuse of dominance by the opposite parties,” said CCI member R R Prasad in a dissenting order
FIR against Vatika Group MD, three others on fraud, cheating charges
Orbit Corp MD Pujit Aggarwal arrested by EOW in Rs 52 crore cheating case
Manesar land scam blew lid off government nexus with private builders
Mumbai’s ‘One Avighna Park’ builder Nish Developers booked in INR 2,000-crore fraud case
ATS, Unitech, Amrapali among the biggest land defaulters to Noida Authority
Supreme Court snubs Supertech asking the builder to “sink or die but pay back the buyers”
Unitech mired in litigation in at least five forums—Company Law Board, NCDRC, Supreme Court, High Court and also state consumer forums
CCI orders probe against Jaypee Group through majority orders in two separate cases involving real estate projects in the national capital region for alleged abuse of dominant market position and imposition of “unfair” conditions on buyers
Noida builders flout norms, ‘use ground water for construction’
What would you make out of a business where the above headlines continue to haunt the home buyers on a routine basis? While the overt consumer activism, social media outcry, media trial and judicial intervention forced the sector to change its tune to Best Practices on the face value, there is a chasm between the lip service and the practices on ground. It seems the developers’ comfort zone lies in to operating in the dark age.
The developers are by and large living in denial. The deep rooted psyche is that once the market conditions improve the buyers have no choice but to run for an asset class that is not only need-based but also a business where the demand far exceeds the supply. This medieval thought process is in fact the biggest roadblock in the way of best practices gaining ground in the Indian real estate.
Best practice is something that the sector never bothered to adopt. But the slowdown and nose diving sales graph are clearly indicating that the developers have no choice but to stop sulking and blaming market conditions for poor sales and start accepting the hard truth.
The buyer today has lost all confidence in developers. The only way this can change is by simple changes the developers make in their business practices that will bring that confidence back. Before they expect market conditions to change, they have to change their own outlook first.
Privately some of the developers admit there is neither any incentive for developers to adopt best practices nor are there penalties for those who do not follow such practices.
A section of analysts also point to developers’ facing challenges in adopting the best practice in the sector. Issues like multi-partner projects; inability of the developer to execute large projects because of their organizational limitations; leverage on finance – personal equity versus project cost; delivering large projects without competent team of vendors; and huge finance cost are some of the issues that force the developers to compromise the professional integrity.
Devina Ghildial, former MD, South Asia – RICS points out that the success or failure of any real estate and construction project can largely be attributed to money, material, manpower, machinery and management. The collaboration of these factors along with effective project management that encapsulates planning, scheduling and budgeting are critical to project delivery. However, the real estate and construction sector in India for long has been fraught with several long-standing issues such as adequate reforms, coupled with changing market dynamics that pose as bottlenecks in project execution. Liquidity concerns, rising costs and lack of specialized manpower are just some of the challenges that developers have continued to grapple with.
“With the evolution of a global marketplace, international property markets have become intrinsically linked and there are international consequences to consider. Then there are also local factors that affect the performance of the sector. The future success of the Indian real estate and construction sector lies in its ability to regulate its operations and professionals. It is also widely felt that awareness and introduction of internationally recognised and locally relevant best practices such as common area measurement and valuation standards can contribute towards uniform practices and lend quality assurance and credibility to the sector,” says Ghildial.
By: Ravi Sinha
Next: Baggage of trust deficit & best practices
