The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 may impact the ability of developers to launch or complete large township projects spread across 100 acres or more. These will have to be registered, launched and marketed in phases with only those common facilities that can be completed within the promised timelines.

"In the first place, developers will generally desist from announcing new township projects for now. In the case of ongoing townships, they will seek to register and complete the individual projects and their associated amenities and features within the time-frame RERA stipulates,” says Anuj Puri, Chairman, JLLR (JLL Residential).

Project cluster approach 

For township projects spread across 300 acres and offering facilities such as a golf course, a hospital, a school and even a cricket stadium, advertising will be limited to facilities and the number of units that have received clearances as part of the first phase.

“Developers will advertise only a cluster which will be part of a large township development. In any case approvals for a project are given only on a land parcel basis. Each land parcel is given a specific identification number by the local municipality,” says Om Ahuja, Chief Executive Officer - Residential at Brigade Enterprises Limited based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

....