In July last year, consumer body Mumbai Grahak Panchayat had written a letter to MahaRera chairman pointing out that the activities of property portals and had sought clarification from the authority on the role of agents.
MUMBAI: Real estate portals like Magicbricks.com, 99acres.com, Makaan.com and Housing.com, among others, will now have to register themselves as real estate agents under the state regulator MahaRera.
In a recent order, the regulator has noted that such portals which carry out the functions of a real estate agent should register themselves with the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRera) within the next two months.
MahaRera said in its judgement, “Portals which carry the function of real estate agent…need registration. Such digital portals are directed to register themselves with MahaRera within the next two months if their activities are spread within the territorial jurisdiction of it.”
MahaRera bench, comprising its members Vijay Satbir Singh and BD Kapdnis have in the order, declared that property portals which go beyond mere advertising and actually facilitate and negotiate sale or purchase of properties for developers and home buyers must register themselves as real estate agent.
In the detailed judgement running into 279 pages, the MahaRera has maintained that such portals are carrying on activities which fall within the definition of real estate agent.
“We find that the portals will have to register themselves with real estate regulatory authority of a state where their activities are going on until the registration at national level is made permissible,” the order said.
The judgement, however, held that the portals whose activities are simply confined to advertisements defined by section 2(b) of RERA, need not register themselves as real estate agents, provided in disclaimer they declare that they are simply advertising agencies and advise the viewers to cross-check the information from other sources including RERA websites.
Elara Technologies, which also owns portals like Proptiger.com, Housing.com, Makaan.com and FastFox.com were not available for comments, while email query sent to Magicbricks.com did not fetch any reply.