Post audit, Noida authority to release list of ‘reliable’ builders

NOIDA: In order to bridge the increasing trust deficit between the builders and the homebuyers, the Noida authority has decided to release a list of builders this week, who are ‘reliable’ and will be able to successfully complete their respective housing projects and deliver the flats to homebuyers on time.

In November 2017, the Noida authority conducted an audit of the accounts of the builders, who were accused of diverting money collected from the sales in the real estate market.

“We had hired Currie & Brown to audit accounts of 51 builders in November,”said Santosh Kumar, officer on special duty of the Noida authority.

“In the first phase, we audited the accounts of 14 builders and, in the second phase, we conducted the audit of remaining 37 builders’ accounts. Now we know names of the builders, who have not diverted the funds and are honestly delivering their projects,” Kumar said.

The authority believes that the negativity in the minds of the

buyers or investors will further ruin the realty market if sales do not pick up.

The officials are of the view that if the reliable builders fail to sell their stock of flats and raise funds then it will affect the financial status of the authority, which struggles to recover around ₹20,000 crore from 94 builders.

“The Noida authority’s chief executive officer is expected to release the list of reliable builders this week. We do not want to spread negativity because it will not help the real estate sector revive and the move will also indirectly affect the buyers,” said Kumar.

Officials are of the view that once the list of reliable builders will be out, people will know whom to trust, which builder diverted the funds or are unable to deliver their projects.

There are a total of 94 housing projects in Noida that are stuck. In these projects, around 78,000 homebuyers have invested their money and have been facing various issues because builders are yet to complete these projects, officials said.

The move will help buyers decide a housing project in which a flat could be bought.

“The authority should tell exact financial status of each of the 51 builders so that buyers, who want to purchase a flat could take an informed decision,” said Shashank Mishra, a buyer.

On September 12, 2017 chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed the CEOS of Noida authority to audit builders, who have failed to deliver flats to homebuyers. The directive came after homebuyers demanded an audit of builders as builders were unable to hand over flats citing shortage of funds to complete the projects.