What a RERA number actually tells you — and how to check it in two minutes

Since the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act came into force, a developer launching a project above the statutory size threshold — broadly, land over 500 square metres or more than eight apartments — has to register it with the state authority before advertising or accepting money. In Gujarat that authority is GujRERA.

Registration is not a quality certificate. It does not mean the project is good, or that the builder is honest, or that it will finish on time. What it means is that a specific set of facts about the project has been filed with a regulator and made public. That is more useful than it sounds, because those filed facts are the ones a sales team is least likely to volunteer.

How to look it up

1. Ask for the project’s RERA registration number. Any developer must display it on advertising material. If somebody hesitates, that is already your answer.
2. Go to the GujRERA portal at gujrera.gujarat.gov.in and open the public project search.
3. Search by the registration number, or by project name and district if you do not have the number.
4. Open the project record and read the filings.

The four things to read once you are in

1. The declared completion date

The developer has committed to a date in a public filing. Compare it against what you were told verbally in the sales gallery. Where those two differ, the filing is the one that matters, and the difference tells you something about the sales team.

2. Carpet area

RERA forced a single honest definition of area. Carpet area is the usable floor area within your walls — not super built-up, not saleable area, not any of the other constructions that let a 1,200 sq ft flat contain 850 sq ft of floor.

Work out your rate per square foot of carpet and use only that number to compare two projects. This one habit will save you more money than any negotiation.

3. Approvals and land title

The filings show which permissions are in place and which are pending, and disclose the land title. A project selling hard while a material approval is still outstanding is not necessarily doomed, but it is a risk you should be pricing rather than discovering.

4. Complaints and orders

Orders passed against the promoter are public. A developer with a pattern of complaints across previous projects is telling you how your own purchase is likely to go.

Check the agent as well as the project

Under Section 9 of the Act, a real estate agent facilitating the sale of a registered project must themselves be registered. Section 59 provides for a penalty of ₹10,000 per day for non-compliance. Ask whoever is selling to you for their agent registration number, and verify it in the same portal.

It is a fair question. Anybody working properly will answer it without being asked twice.

What the number cannot tell you

It will not tell you whether the road outside is about to be widened, whether the builder’s last three towers were handed over with the amenities they promised, whether the common plot in the layout is real or notional, or whether the flat gets afternoon sun in May. That is local knowledge, and it is the part you cannot download.