What RERA Requires Developers to Disclose

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) is a central law, implemented through a regulatory authority in each state, that sets specific duties for a “promoter” — the developer or builder of a project. It does not tell a buyer what to buy; it sets out what a promoter must register, disclose and keep separate.

Registration and the project web page

A promoter must register a real estate project with the state’s RERA authority before advertising, marketing, booking or selling it (with narrow exemptions for very small projects). Once registered, Section 11 of the Act requires the promoter to create a web page on the authority’s website for the project and to keep specific information current on it, including:

The registration number and details of the registration granted.
A quarterly-updated list of the number and type of apartments or plots booked.
A quarterly-updated list of the number of garages booked.
A quarterly-updated list of approvals taken and approvals still pending.
A quarterly-updated status of the project.

Every advertisement for the project is also required to prominently mention the authority’s website address and the project’s registration number, so a prospective buyer can look up this same page.

Carpet area, not super built-up area

Section 2(k) of the Act defines carpet area precisely: “the net usable floor area of an apartment, excluding the area covered by the external walls, areas under services shafts, exclusive balcony or verandah area and exclusive open terrace area, but includes the area covered by the internal partition walls of the apartment.” Before RERA, apartments were commonly marketed and priced on a “super built-up area” that also folded in a share of common areas (lobbies, stairwells, shared walls) — a figure not standardised across developers, which made comparing two projects’ per-square-foot price difficult. RERA requires the agreement for sale to state the carpet area, so a buyer can compare the actual usable space being sold, not a builder-defined larger figure.

The 70% escrow requirement

Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the Act requires that “seventy per cent. of the amounts realised for the real estate project from the allottees, from time to time, shall be deposited in a separate account to be maintained in a scheduled bank to cover the cost of construction and the land cost and shall be used only for that purpose.” In practice this means:

A promoter cannot freely move buyer payments out of the project or use one project’s collections to fund another.
Money can be withdrawn from that account only in proportion to the project’s physical progress, and each withdrawal must be certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant that the amount matches the percentage of work completed.
The promoter must have these project accounts audited by a chartered accountant within six months of the end of each financial year, confirming that funds were used only for that project and that withdrawals matched the certified completion stage.

No large payment before a registered agreement

Under Section 13, a promoter cannot accept more than 10% of an apartment or plot’s cost as an advance or application fee before first entering into — and registering — a written agreement for sale with the buyer. That agreement itself is required to specify the payment schedule, the possession date, and the rate of interest payable by either side in case of a default, among other prescribed particulars.

What this doesn’t cover

RERA governs disclosure, fund-handling and registration; it does not set or cap the price a developer charges, does not guarantee a project will be delivered on time, and does not evaluate a project’s quality or investment merit. A registered project can still be delayed or run into disputes — RERA gives a buyer defined information and a regulatory forum to raise a complaint, not a guarantee of outcome. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, avoid, or expect any return from any property or project.