Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (India)

Framework Name

‍RERA (Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016)

Type

‍Mandatory

Region / Jurisdiction

‍India

Enforcing Body / Certifying Party

‍A Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) established separately in each Indian state and union territory, with a dedicated Appellate Tribunal in each state to hear appeals from its decisions

Penalty / Consequence of Non-Compliance

‍Fines of up to 10% of a project's estimated cost for failing to register a project, for false advertising, or for ignoring regulatory orders. Developers who continue to disregard Appellate Tribunal orders can face imprisonment of up to three years

What It Is & Why It Matters

RERA is an Act of India's Parliament that regulates the real estate sector, requiring developers to register any residential or commercial project above a certain size (broadly, over 500 square meters or eight or more apartments) with their state's RERA authority before selling or advertising it. Registration requires disclosing project details, land title, government approvals, and a committed completion timeline, all of which becomes publicly available for buyers to check before purchasing. Its most consequential requirement is financial: developers must deposit at least 70% of the money collected from buyers into a separate, project-specific account, usable only for that project's construction and land costs, directly preventing a practice that was widespread before RERA existed, developers using one project's buyer funds to finish an entirely different, unrelated project.

It matters because Indian real estate, before this law, had a well-known reputation for chronic project delays, funds diverted across projects, and vague or misleading advertising, with buyers having little effective recourse beyond slow general courts. RERA gives homebuyers a dedicated, faster dispute resolution path and gives the market real transparency for the first time, standardized disclosures a buyer can actually verify before committing significant money to a purchase.

Who Needs It

• You are a real estate developer or promoter launching a residential or commercial project above the size threshold in India
• You are a homebuyer or investor and want to verify a project is properly registered and its builder is complying with fund-use rules before purchasing
• You are a real estate agent operating in India, most states also require agents themselves to register under RERA
• You provide compliance or governance tooling to real estate developers and need to track registration and disclosure obligations across multiple Indian states