A RERA registration number on a hoarding proves that somebody typed a number on a hoarding. Checking it takes about four minutes, costs nothing, and is the single highest-value thing an ordinary buyer can do before paying a token. Here is how.
Step 1: find the right portal
Registration is state-level. A Gurugram project is registered with Haryana’s authority, a Noida project with Uttar Pradesh’s, a Jaipur project with Rajasthan’s. Search for the state authority’s official site and check the domain is a government one before you type anything into it.
Step 2: search the project, not the builder
Every portal has a registered-projects search. Put in the registration number if you have it, or the project name and district if you do not. A builder can be registered and the specific project you are buying into can be a different, unregistered phase — which is exactly the gap you are checking for.
Step 3: read four things on the listing
- The promoter’s name. Does it match the entity whose name is going on your allotment letter and receipt? Group names and legal entity names are often different, and it is the legal entity you have a contract with.
- The registration validity. Registrations have an end date. An expired one is not a technicality — it is the promoter’s own declared completion date, gone past.
- The declared completion date. Compare it to what the sales office told you. If the portal says one year and the site office says another, the portal is the one made under penalty.
- The area and unit count. Sold on “limited units”? The registered number is on the portal.
Step 4: look at the complaints and orders
Most authorities publish complaints and orders against registered projects. A large project with a couple of complaints is normal. A pattern of the same complaint — possession delay, area shortfall, refusal to refund — is information you will not get anywhere else, written down by people who bought before you.
What the number does not tell you
Registration is not a quality rating and not a guarantee of delivery. It means the promoter filed the required disclosures and is now bound by them. That is worth a lot — it is a stick you can use later — but it is not somebody vouching for the building.
If a project is not registered
There are legitimate reasons a plot or a small project may not require registration, and there are illegitimate reasons a large one is not registered. Ask which it is, and get the answer in writing. On our own listings we put the registration number, the phase it covers and the status on the page, and where a project is not registered we say so rather than leaving the field blank.