India: Real Estate

On 24 September 2026, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), at its 215th board meeting (Board Meeting) held in Mumbai, approved several proposals placed before it after public consultation, as summarised in Press Release No. 59/2026.

This month’s Real Estate Updates cover key legislative and regulatory developments impacting apartment ownership, real estate project registrations and cooperative housing societies. The updates include the Karnataka Apartment (Ownership and Management) Bill, 2026, proposed changes to the framework governing apartment ownership and redevelopment, TNRERA’s extension of project registration timelines in view of the prevailing situation in West Asia, and the Maharashtra Government’s decision to lift the ban on allotment of state-owned land to cooperative housing societies.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) was originally built as a monolithic architecture. Its primary mandate was clear: when a company defaults, the entirety of its corporate entity must be pulled into the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). While this unified entity approach worked seamlessly for manufacturing units or simple corporate structures, its application to the real estate sector triggered catastrophic systemic failures. In real estate, a single developer frequently manages dozens of independent housing projects across varying stages of lifecycle, funding, and construction.

A common misconception holds that insolvency moratoriums protect everyone associated with a distressed company, but the Supreme Court's ruling in the Mantri Manyata Energia Project case clarifies that Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code protects only the corporate debtor itself. What happens when promoters, directors, personal guarantors, and landowners face separate proceedings while the company undergoes Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, and how do courts determine whose obligations

The law of secured asset recovery in India has long been dominated by the binary contest between borrower and bank. Yet every so often a case arises that exposes the fragility of third-party interests caught in the crossfire. One such matter came before the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Chennai on 06.08.2026, when Presiding Officer Smt. S.V. Gowramma was called upon to decide whether a successful auction purchaser could be shut out of proceedings that would determine whether it ever obtained the property it had paid for.

The Bombay High Court has ruled on whether stamp duty can be refunded when a Development Agreement is cancelled before achieving its purpose, addressing critical questions about the interpretation of possession clauses and limitation periods under the Maharashtra Stamp Act. The judgment clarifies the distinction between substantive entitlement to refund under Section 47 and procedural time limits under Section 48, while examining how contractual licence provisions should be read in context with possession c

When a builder's agreement contains an arbitration clause, can homebuyers still approach the RERA Tribunal for delayed possession? This jurisdictional question determines the speed, cost, and effectiveness of recovering your money. Courts have increasingly held that RERA's statutory protections cannot be ousted by private arbitration clauses, giving homebuyers a powerful remedy against developer defaults.

The Respondent, M/s Skylink Construction Pvt. Ltd., was registered under service tax for providing construction services, including construction of commercial/industrial buildings...

India’s real estate sector has witnessed unprecedented growth over the last decades, driven by institutional investment, large-scale urbanization and increasingly sophisticated contractual structures. As projects become larger and transaction timelines longer, contracting parties are placing greater emphasis on contractual risk allocation. Among the provisions attracting increased attention are force majeure clauses and contractual protections against unforeseen circumstances.