Skip to content
Real-Estate Explorer
All guides

Rules and approvals

K-RERA for plot buyers: what a registration tells you

Most plotted layouts sold inside a planning area must be registered with K-RERA before they are advertised or sold. A registration gives you a public record of the project, limits the advance and gives you somewhere to complain.

Last checked 31 Oct 20262 min read

General information, not legal or tax advice. These guides have not yet been reviewed by an advocate or a chartered accountant, and rules and rates change. Check with the office concerned and a professional before you pay or sign anything. Spotted a mistake? Write to hello@realestateexplorer.in.

Which layouts must register

Under section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (the RERA Act), a developer cannot advertise, book or sell plots in a project inside a planning area without first registering it with the state’s authority, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Karnataka (K-RERA). A project does not need registration if its land is no more than 500 square metres, or it has no more than eight apartments, counting all phases.

The rule covers projects in planning areas. For a layout outside one, ask whether it was registered anyway, and rely on the other checks in these guides.

Check the registration

  1. Find the registration number in the advertisement or brochure. Section 11 of the Act requires every advertisement to show it, with the K-RERA website’s address.
  2. Search for the project on the K-RERA website.
  3. Check the developer’s name, the survey numbers, the number of plots, the approvals uploaded and the completion date given to the authority.
  4. Read the progress updates the developer files on the project’s page.

What the developer must do

  • Limit the advance: take no more than 10% of the price as an advance or application fee before signing a written agreement for sale with you and registering it (section 13).
  • Keep buyers’ money for the project: deposit 70% of the money collected from buyers in a separate bank account, to be used only for the project’s land and construction cost (section 4(2)(l)(D)).
  • Deliver on time: hand over the plot as the agreement for sale promises, by the date in it. If the developer does not, you can withdraw and get your money back with interest and compensation, or stay on and be paid interest for every month of delay (section 18).

How to complain

Anyone affected can complain to K-RERA, or to its adjudicating officer, about a developer, buyer or agent who breaks the Act or its rules and regulations (section 31). Keep the agreement, receipts, brochures and messages: they are your evidence.

What a registration does not prove

A registration means the developer has filed the project’s papers with K-RERA and must keep to the Act. It is not a guarantee of title. Still have an advocate check the papers, and check the layout approval and the khata yourself; see Papers to check before you pay an advance.

Sources

Official sources are marked. Where no official page could be read, we used news reports and law firms’ notes.

  1. Section 3: prior registration of real estate project (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  2. Section 4: application for registration of real estate projects (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  3. Section 11: functions and duties of promoter (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  4. Section 13: no deposit or advance without an agreement for sale (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  5. Section 18: return of amount and compensation (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  6. Section 31: filing of complaints (opens in a new tab) · CourtBook (text of the RERA Act, 2016)
  7. K-RERA website: registered projects and agents (opens in a new tab) · Real Estate Regulatory Authority KarnatakaOfficial

Related guides

Find your next possibility.

Explore properties