bangalore real estate

In April last year, Citizen Matters had published an article on Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Urban Development Department apologising to the National Green Tribunal (NGT); This was after the BBMP had claimed the NGT’s order increasing the buffer zone to 75 metres was not applicable retrospectively. The NGT was upset, and lashed out at the state bodies, objecting to the term ‘quasi-judicial body,’ which the agencies had used to describe the Tribunal. As a result, the Karnataka government’s Urban Development Department and the BBMP retracted the notifications that clarified the NGT ruling, and apologised to the Tribunal.…

On May 15, 2015 a complaint was lodged with the Consumer Redressal Forum by a buyer of an Apartment in an upscale Apartment Complex in West Bengaluru. The complaint cited violation by the builder of one particular rule relating to the Apartment handover. On May 10, 2018, The Bangalore Urban II Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum passed a landmark Order against the reputed Builder, in favour of the Complainant. An engineer/market researcher by profession, Arathi Manay Yajaman was one of the 350 plus trusting home buyers in the complex. But she was also different – a person keenly interested…

Even as the leaden, monsoon skies are darkening over an overgrown metro, many might be surprised to learn that Bengaluru was added to the ‘Smart City’ list on June, 2017. It has become the seventh city from Karnataka to get into the Smart City list. It bemuses many, because the 'honour' and implication is still not very well-known to everyone. A year after the city has become part of the list, there is still delay in implementation. Why? It is a big project, after all, says AR Ravi, Joint Director (Planning), Urban Development Department (UDD). Just the planning and the…

Property buyers often fall victim to unscrupulous real estate developers; hence there is a need for real estate development to be regulated. This is what the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) intends to do. On Saturday, 19th August 2017, I attended an interactive Question and Answer session on RERA. IAS Officer Kapil Mohan, the Principal Secretary, Housing Board, Government of Karnataka, and also Interim Authority of RERA, was part of the panel. The event was organised by the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), Karnataka chapter, on  the Karnataka State Billiards Association premises. It was attended by many real estate…

In the previous story of the series on Ejipura housing project for Economically Weaker Sections, critical issues in the project implementation and how the developer considers all those issues as trivial were covered. This story will tell you how the BBMP has goofed up with the concession agreement of the project and why it might lead to a conflict between the two parties. In 2012, soon after the BBMP and Maverick’s plan to build EWS quarters in Ejipura under public-private partnership (PPP) model gained focus, several individuals and organisations opposed the arrangement of using the land meant for EWS families…

In the first part of the series, the problems faced by the buyers of a famed developer who didn’t handover flats as promised, were explained. Read the first part here: When the developer conned buyers This part will explain how buyers formed a community and tackle the issue. When meeting in groups with the local management of the builder did not help, the residents decided to print banners and sit in protest at their office in June-July 2013. Meanwhile, Nayak suggested that all the buyers get together, form a registered association and fight out the builder legally. As a prelude,…

The longstanding suffering of home buyers at the hands of the builders may be a common occurrence. This is the story of how three of us fought to get our due from the builder. It has been a long battle for my fellow buyers Kartikey Khanna, an RTI activist, and MS Shamasundara, an armed forces employee, and me. We had put our hard-earned, lifetime’s savings in what we thought would be our dream house. Like so many others, we were impressed with the lofty promises of world class living standards and amenities and quick possession (within 36 months of signing…

In some Apartment Complexes, it is a practice to charge two different rates of Monthly Maintenance Charges (MMC). While the owners residing in the society are charged a certain basic rate, the owners of the tenanted apartments are charged an extra amount. This additional amount is referred to as Non Occupancy Charges (NOC) - not to be confused with No Objection Certificate. They are also interchangeably called as Tenancy Charges or Tenancy Differential.   This practice is usually the cause of acrimonious relations between the Management Association and the owners who have rented out their property. The situation remains controllable…

In what could be a big blow to all developers constructing their projects around lakes, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has delivered a landmark judgment. The NGT judgment imposes a new buffer zone of 75 metres for lakes and wetlands which will be a no-construction zone, as opposed to 30 metres of buffer earlier. This will stop all new projects from getting constructed within 75 meters of lakes, and will impact many existing projects too. The NGT has also ruled that the buffer zone of the rajakaluves must be calculated from the edge of the drain, as opposed to the…

Difference between the topography of the land between Kasavanahalli and Kaikondrahalli lakes, in 2002 and 2016, as seen on Google Earth. The Southern Bench of National Green Tribunal has dismissed the petition of Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) and Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrudhi Samiti (MAPSAS) related to a residential project coming up between Kasavanahalli and Kaikondarahalli lakes. Stating that the case on the grounds that the developer has a valid Environmental Clearance, the NGT dismissed the petition and allowed the developer of Shriram Chirping Woods to continue with the project.In an order delivered on April 26th, NGT bench comprising Dr…