Pune realtors form body to help bring tech savvy and professionalism in broking biz  

Pune, December 06: Real estate brokers in the city have come together to form Professional Realtors of Pune Welfare Association(PROP) – a body that will help its members acquire knowledge and skills to use technology to run their business more efficiently and to put in place best practices to serve customers better. 
 
The Association has already registered 50 members and expects this number to rise to 500 in near future, mentioned PROP President Yashodhar Nagaraju in a press conference today. PROP Chairman Kishen Milaney, Secretary Udayan Mane and Treasurer Anuj Mathur and Ravi Varma, Chairman of National Association of Realtors (NAR) were also present at the press conference.
 
Nagaraju said there are about 15000 people in the city who claim to be in the business of real estate consultancy and PROP will try to bring them under one umbrella and help them move to professionalise their work. PROP will operate as the Pune affiliate of NAR and will get important inputs and guidance from the national body, said Nagaraju.
 
The principal objectives of PROP include improvement in the standards of service to match the expectations of the modern day customer, improvement in technology awareness of members to help them access business information and take speedy action and making them ready to face competition from global realty broking houses and to make their business compliant with the recently implemented Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA), Nagaraju said.
 
PROP will undertake training programmes to familiarise members with technology as well as to acquire business development strategies, he said, adding that the body will also implement a code of ethics for members.
 
NAR Chairman, Ravi Varma said, “With the enforcement of RERA, the real estate sector has for the first time come under regulation and it is important for the real estate brokers to arm themselves to fulfill the expectations of this legislation.” He however said there were anomalies in the Act that will impact the real estate brokers in a major way and NAR is working with various state governments to get rid of these amenities. Varma said the Act has made real estate brokers – along with developers – responsible for delay in delivery of a housing unit and non-provision of amenities mentioned in the agreement of sale. This, he said is unfair to the brokers who only facilitate the coming together of the buyer and seller, without having any control over the operational aspects like construction schedules and provision of amenities. Also, RERA provides for an annual registration fee for brokers which in some states in as high as Rs.25000/- per month. “No other professionals such as lawyers or chartered accountants pay the state governments such high fees every year to be able to continue to do business,” he said.
 
Welcoming the government’s decision to demonetize high value currency notes Varma said this is a welcome step which be good for the real estate sector in the long run by reducing the business costs and also simplifying the taxation for the sector.