MahaRERA panel recommends mandatory training and certification for all new agents

The MahaRERA (Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority) newly established steering committee has suggested guidelines on training and certification of new real estate agents in its first meeting conducted on April 16, through video conferencing. In this meeting the stakeholders have suggested that from May 1st 2021 to 2022, all Real Estate Agents who wish to register with MahaRERA should have the certification. Moreover, it was suggested that the validity of the certificate should be of maximum for five years only, as the regulatory framework is dynamic and evolving. Therefore, the renewal of course would help learn the change made from time to time.

Anand Gupta, chairperson, Housing and RERA committee of Builders Association of India (BAI) said, "In every developed country, to become a real estate agent there is a standard practice and only after gaining the required knowledge about the industry they are qualified to become agents. This was not applicable here in Mumbai or anywhere in country so far. Also as MahaRERA has decided to do so our demand from BAI is that other states should also start similar practice."

The committee comprises seven members headed by the MahaRERA founder chairman, member of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, representative of SROs, NAR, CREBAI, technical officer MahaRERA and any other member as co-opted by the chairman, from time to time.

According to MahaRERA, the agents are an essential element of the real estate sector, who connect with allottees and promoters and facilitate most of the real estate transactions. Therefore, they need to have comprehensive understanding of the real estate transaction in order to guide the allottees and prevent disputes.

Interestingly, already over 29,000 agents have been registered with MahaRERA. The committee therefore for these registered agents has suggested that a timeline will be fixed so that they too will obtain training so that when they approach MahaRERA for their registration renewal, the said requirement of mandatory training and certification will be fulfilled.