PUNJAB has excelled in almost every sphere of life due to dynamic policies and their vigilant implementation under the leadership of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and it has, once again, shown the path to other provinces by updating rules for housing societies in a comprehensive manner. It has approved sweeping amendments to the Punjab Private Housing Schemes Rules, 2022, marking a major regulatory overhaul of private real estate development in the province. The reforms aimed at improving transparency, strengthening planning controls, protecting buyers and curbing unregulated housing growth across the province, including major urban centres can serve as a role model if enforced in letter and spirit.
The proposed reforms in the working of the private housing schemes were overdue in view of mushroom growth of housing schemes and the need to safeguard interests of the people. Real estate has been a flourishing business attracting buyers and citizens equally but the working of the housing societies and sponsors of countless ‘towns’ and ‘enclaves’ was not transparent and there have been complaints of massive frauds with serious consequences for life-savings of the unsuspecting people. In fact, rules and regulations were there but these have never been enforced in the desired manner and the regulating agencies including civic bodies of different cities and towns confined themselves to issuing warnings to people about illegal societies and schemes. In this backdrop, the Punjab Government deserves credit for framing rules that take care of almost all critical aspects. Apart from full digitization of the approval process, the reforms envisage a new classification system for housing schemes, dividing them into four categories: schemes under 100 kanals, farm housing (minimum 100 kanals), apartment schemes (minimum 25 kanals) and low-cost housing schemes. The minimum limit of 100 kanals will hopefully encourage establishment of smart housing schemes with proper roads, streets and other facilities. It would be in the fitness of things if the existing schemes fulfilling the criteria and conditions are also regularized by the respective agencies so that their residents could get proper electricity, gas and water facilities, which are often denied to them by service providers on the plea these schemes are not approved.
Planning and land-use standards have been significantly revised. Developers must allocate land for parks, playgrounds, graveyards, public buildings, roads and waste management facilities. Open spaces will range from 5–7% of total area in most schemes and at least 10% in apartment projects, while graveyards remain fixed at a minimum of 2%. Commercial areas will be limited to 5–10% and public buildings to 2–3%. A major infrastructure shift requires all utilities—including water, sewerage, gas, electricity, telecom and internet—to be installed underground before road construction. Overhead utility lines are now prohibited, a decision that will go a long way in improving the overall landscape of such schemes. Developers are required to obtain approvals from relevant agencies for water, sewerage, drainage, electricity and environmental systems and secure EPA clearance within six months of approval. There have been consistent complaints and rightly so that sponsors and developers never respected timelines for completion of the development work and applicants/allottees waited for years and in some cases decades for possession of plots. With this in view, enforcement has been intensified through daily fines ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 for illegal or delayed developments, depending on the size of the scheme. Buyer protections are also reinforced through mandatory digital allotment management, minimum notice periods for cancellation and structured opportunities for payment before penalties. In majority of cases, sponsors of small towns and schemes abandoned their projects on completion of sale of plots, leaving allottees at the mercy of circumstances as far as provision of routine civic services is concerned. The new rules envisage that on completion housing schemes will be handed over to seven-member management committees composed of sponsors and resident professionals, responsible for maintaining infrastructure and services with audited financial oversight. This aspect alone has the potential to mitigate the woes of the residents on a sustainable basis.
