The transition to the new realty regulatory framework under RERA is expected to slowdown the new project launches and increase working capital requirements of developers, thus creating pressure on their operational performance during this fiscal, said rating agency Icra.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), which came into effect from May 1, is likely to increase customer confidence and improve demand prospects over the long term, but in the short-term, it may pose various challenges for developers, the rating agency said.
"The current transition period of RERA implementation is expected to be challenging for developers as they need to realign their business operations to comply with the new regulations," said ICRA Senior Vice-President and Group Head K Ravichandran.
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"This will benefit larger developers who have the resources and financial flexibility to withstand the near term challenges and scale up execution levels as required."
According to ICRA, implementation of the Act has seen delayed as very few states have been able to create the required regulatory infrastructure till now.
"Moreover, the transition to the new regulatory framework is expected to constrict the new project launches and increase working capital requirements of developers," ICRA Vice-President and Sector Head Shubham Jain said.
These short-term challenges are expected to put pressure on the operational performance of developers during FY2018, he added.
Under the Act, state governments need to frame rules with respect to the various provisions, and set up a state level regulatory authority to implement these norms.
While many states have notified their real estate rules, certain states are yet to be complete this step. Even fewer states have set up the regulatory authority as required under the Act.
"The registration process for ongoing and new projects has been lacklustre. As all ongoing realty projects are required to be registered by July 31, the absence of the requisite regulatory infrastructure can delay registrations affecting developers in such states," Jain said.
As per Icra, the provisions of the Act will also significantly impact developers' financial profile as it will raise their working capital requirements and increase reliance on equity or debt financing.
"With the commencement certificate being a pre-requisite for registration and sale of projects, developers will no longer be able to part-finance some of the pre-development costs with customer advances.
"Also, the restrictions on withdrawal of customer advances will reduce cash flow fungibility across projects and increase working capital requirements," the rating firm said.
Developers will have to enhance or scale up project execution capabilities to ensure that all project commitments are met in a timely manner, it said.
