Declare PIN, don’t rename area: RERA

It is common practice for builders to rename city’s areas to make them more appealing and attract buyers.  However, taking note of this, housing authority MahaRERA has made it mandatory for every builder to put up the PIN code of every project, to ensure transparency.  This will reflect even on the website of MahaRERA,

With top builders like Lodha selling apartments in areas close to Bhiwandi —being referred to as Upper Thane — and even Tata Housing referring to its project between Kalyan-Bhiwandi as New BKC, the style of renaming places in real estate seems to have returned. 

Builders in the last few years have used terminologies like Upper Worli for Lower Parel, Upper Powai for Bhandup to make them more appealing.

Sushil Dungarwal, who had rechristened Bhandup as Upper Powai for a project, said, “This is a marketing tool, and raises the hopes of home buyers. 

Ask residents of Hiranandnai where they stay, they will always say Hiranandani, not Powai. Similarly, when one sells a project with the name of a better location, the home buyer expects quality and amenities in high-end areas of which name the builder is using.”

While this is misleading, people like Dungarwal claim otherwise. “If the builder is using a new name and not living up to its expectations, then it is bad. But if they are, then it is a mere name change for a better purpose.”

MahaRERA has taken a note of this and has made it mandatory for builders to disclose the PIN code. Gautam Chaterjee, Chairman, MahaRERA, said, “MahaRERA has made it mandatory to give the unique PIN code for the project which will also be available in public domain on the website.”