Market situation pushing builders to pay high brokerage

In a recently concluded matter in MahaRERA, a developer alleged that the broker charged him 14 per cent as brokerage and marketing charges while selling a flat in the project. The case was regarding a home buyer seeking a refund from the developer for selling him a flat other than he had booked. The advocate for the real estate consultant said that the amount mentioned by the developer as brokerage includes both marketing and brokerage, which has become a sort of norm of the day. While hearing of the case, the developer, SSV Developers and Builders alleged that Sai Estate Consultants Chembur Pvt Ltd. collected 14 per cent charges from him as the brokerage/marketing charges regarding this particular transaction. The transaction in question was where a home buyer bought a home in the developer's Vikhroli project via the consultant for an amount of Rs 1 crore, and had paid Rs 30 lakh already. The home buyer was now seeking a refund because he alleged that the flat sold to him was else and when he received the receipt it was another flat. Already the real estate industry is going through a rough phase and sales aren't pretty good. This has forced many developers to give discounts and also be dependent on real estate consultants. Adv Sanjay Chaturvedi, who represented Sai Estate Consultant in MahaRERA said, "The 14 per cent that the builder is saying that was charged as brokerage also includes marketing. To market any project, which also includes a huge manpower, the total marketing cost would be close to 8-10 per cent, and the remaining 4-6 per cent of the total 14 per cent charged would be the brokerage." Chaturvedi, who is also a housing expert says that the condition of real estate is such that, while developers are paying up to 15 per cent for brokerage and marketing, they even give home buyers up to 15 per cent discounts so as to sell flats. Meanwhile, brokers have already raised their demand for brokerage to be increased from two to three per cent and many developers have agreed too for this demand seeing the market situation.