Only 10% of Real Estate Brokers registered at MahaRERA

With the growing concerns over the lack of registration of real estate agents and to force up the numbers, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority has approached the Confederation of Real Estate Brokers’ Association of India. Only 14000 brokers are registered with MahaRERA since its implementation in 2013. The percentage of registration is only 10% among more than 1 lakh real estate brokers in the state.

According to Vasant Prabhu, MahaRERA secretary, the poor number of registrations of real estate brokers was a growing concern for the authority and they needed the Crebai (Confederation of Real Estate Brokers Association of India) to ensure registration of all members, either through the company or separately with MahaRERA. Prabhu added, “We have approached Crebai to ensure all of the members are associated with projects that are going on and register with MahaRERA. It is important for all citizens to go for deals with only those brokers who are registered with MahaRERA.”

It has been mandatory by MahaRERA that any broker who desires to sell apartments with registered landmark should be registered with the authority as well. MahaRERA has issued a form of regulation for brokers, according to Crebai. Around 80% of real estate brokers are offering resale properties, which don’t fall under MahaRERA out of 1.5 lakh brokers.

Milind Kamdar, President, Maharashtra branch, Crebai, added, “Some types of security measures must be taken by MahaRERA to ensure the registration of all the brokers. MahaRERA should also address the demands of standardization.” A broker said, “We are responsible for any violation, true. But there is no rule to protect our rights. Most of the times buyers and builders don’t pay us the brokerage that we deserve and there is also no provision for penalty.”

According to MahaRERA officials, they are going to follow up with Crebai on regular basis to increase the number of registrations. In fact, they would also run awareness campaigns to help citizens to deal with only registered brokers.