Greater Noida extension builders, whose land acquisition has been struck down by the Supreme Court, on Thursday said all those who had booked houses in the affected projects would get back their money, including the cost incurred as home loan interest, if they so desired.
Addressing a press conference at Noida, representatives of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI), Western Uttar Pradesh Chapter, said the builders and developers would jointly suffer a loss of Rs. 500 crore-600 crore consequent to last week's court order, cancelling acquisition of land from farmers.
However, the CREDAI assured buyers that they would not incur loss: they had the option of either shifting to some other housing project or taking a refund. “We will shift the buyer or refund the money with interest equivalent to the rate paid by customers on home loan. We will at least protect the home loan interest payments,” Amrapali Developers CMD Anil Sharma said.
Around 500 refund applications have been received by the developers so far. However, the majority of the buyers want flats at an alternative site, but at the old rate of allotment. Several such buyers have been shifted to alternative sites available with the developers.
Ashok Choudhary, chairman and managing director of Panchsheel Buildtech, one of the affected developers, said: “In our projects, only 124 customers have been affected; out of them we have reached a settlement with more than 50. The rest are mainly looking for relocation. If someone wants his money back, we will refund it with interest.”
Supertech Chairman R.K. Arora said the banks were ready to disburse loans if the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority assured them that the land acquisition was in order.
Mr. Sharma said the CREDAI would soon set up a legal cell, which apart from resolving the refund issue, would conduct due diligence before participating in any land auction in future.
The CREDAI said it was approaching local farmers also as they were not against development but had some issues with the Authority. Hopefully these issues would be resolved in 15 days.
