Realtors say Noida’s reschedulement scheme will not have much impact

While acknowledging that the Noida authority’s reschedulement scheme will will address the issues in projects having dues upto 50 crore, many developers and builders said it will not have much impact on the real estate sector.

The Noida authority on Wednesday launched a new scheme allowing builders more time to pay their financial dues and deliver the project. “We have brought this scheme and also reduced charges on giving additional time in the interest of homebuyers. We hope realtors will use the schemes and deliver the projects,” said Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer of the Noida authority.

If the realtors will not pay dues within two years, then the authority can cancel their allotment after two notices. Realtors need to apply for this scheme from January 1 till March 2023, and once applied, realtor will have to pay at least 20% of total dues within a month and the rest dues within two years, said officials.

Nikhil Havelia, joint secretary, confederation of real estate developers association of India (Credai), a realtors’ body, said, “We hope that realtors with financial dues up to 50 crore will be able to pay 20% of the dues and the remainder within two years. At least 60,000 flat buyers will be able to get possession and execute registry. However, realty projects with larger dues will not be able to make use of this scheme due to funds crunch.”

Noida is struggling to recover 50,000 crore from around 80 realty projects. At least 160,000 homebuyers have been unable to take possession of their apartments or execute registry due to realtors having defaulted on their dues, said officials.

“Barring a few, most of the developers are facing financial crisis. And if someone needs to pay 1,000 crore dues then paying 20% of it is not easy at this time,” said Amit Kumar, executive director, Aims Max Gardenia private limited.

On Wednesday, RK Arora, president of the Uttar Pradesh national real estate development council, said, “We welcome the move of the Greater Noida authority, which has accepted our demands of reschedulement of dues, reduced charges on time extension and other decisions in the favour of the realty sector. The authority and the Uttar Pradesh government need to take more decisions to address the issue being faced by the realty sector.”

Noida authority officials said from January to March, the fate of this scheme will be decided.