News: Housing Ministry Wants AI-Ready, Machine-Readable RERA Data-16-02-2026

India’s real estate regulatory system should move towards AI-led insights and machine-to-machine integration, Kuldip Narayan, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said at Naredco’s National Urban and Real Estate Development Conclave, held in the capital on February 13-14.

He called the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act a historic reform that institutionalised registration, escrow safeguards and grievance redressal, but said it now needs deeper digitalisation. Regulation draws its strength from stakeholders’ trust, and information on any project anywhere should be easy for the public to find.

Quarterly progress reports, he said, must be machine-readable and digitally integrated so AI tools can analyse them, and their content should be understandable to ordinary homebuyers, not only experts. Most RERA websites publish PDFs, which limits how much actionable insight can be drawn. These reports are mandatory filings by registered developers within 15-20 days of each quarter’s end, covering construction status, inventory, sales and finances; non-filing can attract penalties.

Narayan noted that standards and processes differ widely across RERAs although each has practices worth replicating. Interoperability would let authorities follow a developer’s activity across states and strengthen supervision. All RERAs should be able to communicate in human and machine-readable formats, he said, which may require standard operating procedures, procedural reforms and possibly amendments. First, though, trust must be built.

On the wider picture, he said the urban population will cross 80 crore by 2050 whether the country likes it or not, and more than half the built-up space needed by then is yet to be constructed. Over the next 20-25 years India must sharply expand housing supply while carrying out large-scale brownfield redevelopment. Urban planning, public transport and housing must work as one framework; treating them separately is a policy error.

He also called for efficient land markets, a regulatory framework that promotes development instead of merely controlling it, and access to long-term capital. Reaching Viksit Bharat by 2047 requires society, government and industry to move together.

Union ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, minister of state Tokhan Sahu, several state RERA chiefs and developers attended.