Mint Primer: Is a fresh crisis brewing in NCR’s property market?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The property market in the National Capital Region (NCR) has witnessed a clean-up and turnaround in recent times. Now, a new crisis seems to have hit the market, with allegations of cheating and defrauding of homebuyers doing the rounds.
Mint explains: Last week, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the NCR premises of two developers—the WTC Group and Bhutani Infra—and their promoters. First information reports filed by the Economic Offences Wing alleged cheating, criminal breach of trust and defrauding of hundreds of homebuyers. Documents worth over ₹3,500 crore, collected from investors against projects in NCR, were found.
Buyers were lured into investing, but the money was allegedly siphoned off and the projects were undelivered. Documents that ED found also showed transactions and transfer of assets between the two groups. Read more: Real estate companies fund-raise ammo to fuel growth A string of real estate scandals had rocked NCR over the last decade.
Some of the region’s largest developers engaged in years of unchecked real estate expansion, a land-buying frenzy, and diversion of funds away from projects. Hundreds of home projects moved at a snail’s pace, or were never delivered. But, things changed post the covid-19 pandemic, as there was a revival in customer demand after a prolonged slowdown.
Developers benefited from a bull run and the return of investors. Reputed builders earned the confidence of buyers yet again. The latest controversy, now, opens up a can of worms.
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