Noida developers have this time not only trapped the homebuyers but also the development authorities of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway. In more than 100 real estate projects the developers like ATS, Supertech, Unitech, Orris, Omaxe and Logix have defaulted on payment of land cost to the government in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway areas. The amount is staggering Rs. 10,000 crore.
They have rather created a catch-22 situation for the authority, and if the authority does not reschedule their due payment, the fate of the homebuyers who have invested their hard earned money hangs in balance.
Sources in these authorities confirm that these builders failed to pay Rs. 3,800 crore to Noida Authority for 110 projects, Rs. 3,400 crore to Greater Noida Authority in 15 projects and Rs. 1,000 crore to Yamuna Expressway in 10 projects.
The Greater Noida Authority recently cancelled allotment of a 100-acre plot to Unitech when the company failed to cough up Rs. 1,000 crore towards loan. Surprisingly, Unitech had already allotted the flats to homebuyers on this plot, even when it had not obtained any approval from the concerned authorities and had not cleared land dues.
In an email query sent by Track2Realty, all these developers refused to comment. They did not oblige despite of repeated attempts on the phone calls either. Rohtas Goyal, CMD of Omaxe was earlier quoted by DNA Newspaper saying that the Authority cannot cancel the land allotment merely on grounds of delay in payment. It is, however, ironic that most of these developers have already sold off built-up area to customers.
Requesting anonymity, a Noida-based analyst says that the land lease may be cancelled, if the project has not yet been launched. But for the projects already been sold the situation is really precarious and risky for the homebuyers.
Builders have for long maintained that there is no buyer in this bad market and the authority has no option but to reschedule their payments.
Sources within the authorities maintain that the government officials are also worried this time as there would be huge protest by the homebuyers if the lease of the defaulting builders is cancelled. They are also conscious of the fact that the sales are down but then they blame the developers for creating such a demand and supply mismatch in the market.
The stalemate, however, makes the homebuyers anxious and many of them feel the developers who concealed the reality with them have cheated them.
Geetamber Anand, CREDAI President and CMD of ATS is known to champion the causes of the sector with a moral high ground, but in this case of default by his own company, he preferred to be silent. Homebuyers allege that whenever the fault lies with the builders, he creates a collective conspiracy of silence within the sector over the issue.
