Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has opposed a bill seeking the establishment of an independent Real Estate Regulatory Authority. The authority claims the bill is contrary to the provisions of its own 1960 ordinance.

A private member bill, titled The Real Estate (Regulations and Development) Bill, 2017, moved by the Senator Mohsen Aziz of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Senate of Pakistan, had proposed the formation of a fully-empowered and independent body to regulate and promote the real estate sector in Pakistan.

The bill has eight chapters and proposes the establishment of a Real Estate Regulator Authority, a mechanism for the registration of real estate projects and real estate agents with said regulatory authority, functions and duties of promoters, rights and duties of allottees, central advisory council, the real estate appellate tribunal whereas the proposed law also provides the details of offences and recommends their penalties.

According to the bill, no real estate project will be presented in the market for sale without prior registration with the envisioned regulatory authority. Registration of any individual working in the real estate sector with the authority will also be mandatory.

The law also proposes its own mechanism to transfer the properties within each real-estate project to avoid disputes.

After the bill was presented in the upper house of the parliament, it was forwarded to the committee concerned. The Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) had sought feedback from CDA over the bill.

After examining the provisions of the bill, CDA pointed out several clauses that, it claims, are contradictory to the CDA Ordinance as well as other rules and regulations of the civic body.

“The authority that will be established through the bill will have duplicate functions that are currently being exercised by the local planning and development agencies such as the CDA,” the civic body commented on the bill. It proposed that CADD Ministry should oppose the draft bill as it was contradictory to CDA laws and regulations.

Talking to Daily Times, Member Planning and Design Asad Mehboob Kiani said: “We have opposed the said bill because CDA is already doing most of the things that the proposed real estate regulatory authority will do.”

When questioned about the absence of a mechanism for the transfer of titles within high-rise buildings, the member said: “Yes, we don’t have an effective mechanism for transfer of titles in contiguous properties, but soon we will launch such a system.”

A similar act was passed by the Indian Parliament in June 2016. Most of the contents of aforementioned bill moved by Mohsen Aziz are quite similar to the law passed by the Indian Parliament.

When contacted, Senator Mohsen Aziz said that he was not sure whether the bill had any similarities to the Indian law or not. “However, the purpose of moving the bill is to establish a regulatory authority that will protect the interests of consumers and to ensure smooth sale of plots and real estate projects in an efficient and transparent manner.”

“Every day, many innocent people lose their money in fraudulent housing projects. I thing once the law is passed by the parliament, the issues facing the real estate sector can be streamlined,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, August 25^th 2017.