Ten years of RERA: 3,147 projects lapse in Karnataka, only 39% apply for completion

The recovery of money awarded to homebuyers is another concern in Karnataka. | Photo Credit: File Photo As the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016, completes 10 years, only 39% of the projects registered under the law have applied for completion in Karnataka, while almost 35% have lapsed, according to data compiled by the Forum for People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE), which has been at the forefront of the fight for homebuyers in Karnataka.The State’s latest figures show that 3,147 of the 8,984 projects approved for registration with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) have lapsed. Only 3,580 projects have applied for completion. The data points to a large number of projects in the State that have not reached the completion stage within their stipulated timelines.M.S. Shankar, general secretary of the FPCE, said the authorities already had details of projects whose registration periods had lapsed, adding that they should have visited these sites to ascertain their status and take preventive action. He questioned why K-RERA could not inspect projects in advance, keep their registrations in abeyance where necessary, and freeze project bank accounts to prevent further diversion of homebuyers’ money. The organisation has also called for regular inspections of all ongoing registered projects to ensure that developers adhere to their committed timelines.RERA-K Chairman Rakesh Singh said most of the lapsed projects were either pre-RERA projects or had been abandoned due to disputes with landowners or other reasons. He said efforts had been made to encourage developers to apply for extensions at a minimal cost, but he admitted that these efforts had not yielded the desired results.Mr. Shankar told The Hindu that a coordination committee should be formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to ensure proper implementation of RERA in Karnataka. He proposed that the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and the homebuyer associations be included in the committee.Karnataka RERA: Recovery as on November 1, 2026DetailsNumbers Values in croresRRC issued2,6941,253.11 RRC recovered356 129.03Percentage vs issued 13.21%10.29%Comparison between January 26 and October 26 Details NumbersValue in crores RRC issued369 171.27RRC recovered 74 18.76 Compiled by Forum for People’s Collective EffortsMoney recoveryThe recovery of money awarded to homebuyers is another concern in Karnataka. As of November 1, 2026, K-RERA had issued 2,694 Recovery Revenue Certificates (RRCs), involving ₹1,253.11 crore. However, it had recovered only 356 certificates, involving ₹129.03 crore. This is only 10.29% of the total amount recovered.Between January 23 and October 31, 2026, K-RERA issued 369 additional RRCs involving ₹171.27 crore, while recovering only ₹18.76 crore against 74 certificates.RestructuringThese Karnataka figures form part of FPCE’s larger concerns over the implementation of RERA across the country. In a representation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the organisation has sought a fundamental restructuring of the legislation, arguing that its dual mandate of promoting the real estate sector and protecting homebuyers has compromised its consumer-protection role.The FPCE has said that several practices that RERA was enacted to prevent continue, including diversion of funds collected from homebuyers, one-sided builder-buyer agreements, delays in possession, unauthorised changes to sanctioned plans and the handing over of homes without occupancy certificates. It has also flagged the granting of repeated project extensions without properly examining the developers’ defaults and the failure to execute refund and compensation orders obtained by homebuyers.Based on official records from seven States, including Karnataka, the group estimates that ₹12.44 lakh crore of homebuyers’ money remains locked in delayed projects, affecting around 27.6 lakh families.The organisation has proposed removing the promotion of the real estate sector from the mandate of RERA authorities and restructuring it as a Real Estate Homebuyer Protection Act, with its administration placed under a consumer-protection ministry, such as Consumer Affairs. Published - November 04, 2026 06:01 am IST