Demonetization and Possibility to Transform Real Estate Business in India

Today, India is the second fastest-growing economy in the world and the real estate sector is one of the most globally recognized sectors in India. The real estate market is expected to touch US$ 180 billion by 2020. Important is that Indian government is also after converting black money of this sector into real money by making this business more buyer-friendly. For the same, the government first passed the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, also known as RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) and then brought the updated version of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 in the form of Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 (BTP Amendment Act). And, the most recent move in the same regard is the demonetization of country’s 1000 and 500 rupee notes. The real estate sector was definitely affected by this demonetization exercise, as it has traditionally been seen that a very high involvement of black money and cash transactions lies in this sector only. According to prominent business experts, the secondary market of real estate business was directly affected and primary market was almost unaffected. The present paper deals with the study of the Indian real estate business scenario pre and post demonetization. It also depicts the challenges faced by the same business groups after demonetization and other legal reformatories. The study is descriptive in nature and based on secondary data and facts retrieved from the concerned websites. All the relevant facts and data have been analyzed theoretically to find out the possibility of transformation of the existing real estate business practices in India. The study reports that RERA and BTP Amendment Act removed all the possibilities of the train of Indian real estate business getting derailed and the recent move of demonetization has put this train on the right track i.e. without involvement of black money (undisclosed cash) and exploitation of the buyers, the real estate sector will move on and will be called “real” in true sense.