News: MahaRERA: Every Property Ad Must Show RERA Details-20-07-2026
A real estate developer cannot escape the duty to display RERA registration details prominently because an advertisement was small or published without charge, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has ruled. It fined a Pune-based developer Rs 15,000.
The regulator had begun suo motu proceedings after noticing an advertisement that breached norms it issued in April 2025.
The rules
Since April 2025, developers and real estate agents must prominently show a project’s MahaRERA registration number and a QR code linking to its RERA webpage in all advertisements, with penalties of up to Rs 50,000 for non-compliance. The regulator had found that on several websites these were either displayed incorrectly or hard to see because of poor colour contrast and small fonts.
Its order dated April 8, 2025 says the registration number and website address must appear in a font equal to or larger than that used for the project’s contact details and address. Where contact details appear in different fonts, the registration number must match or exceed the largest of them.
The developer’s reply
The developer said it had supplied all mandatory details, including the registration number, disclosures and QR code, to a professional advertising agency. A larger advertisement in the same campaign carried every required disclosure, it argued, while the smaller one under scrutiny was a free classified issued under a promotional scheme. Any deviation was unintentional and happened at the agency level, it said.
The ruling
MahaRERA observed that the QR code, registration number and website address did appear in the advertisement, but the number and address were in a smaller font than the contact details, contrary to the April 2025 order.
It refused to consider the argument that the classified was free and tied to the larger advertisement. Whether published "with cost or free of cost", the order said, an advertisement does not relieve the promoter of a breach of the Authority’s directions.
The penalty was imposed under Section 63 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. The promoter must pay within 15 days, failing which the amount will double, subject to a maximum of Rs 50,000.
