The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has tied up with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to identify developers advertising projects without registering the project with the real estate regulatory body.

The collaboration, a first by any real estate regulator in the country, is aimed at protecting homebuyers who may decide to buy or invest in properties that are yet to be or not allowed to be sold for any specific reason.

As per the agreement between the regulator and ASCI, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be utilised to detect advertisements published without MahaRERA registration number and QR code.

?Developers are not permitted to advertise unless the project is registered with MahaRERA. Whenever we have observed any advertisements without a registration number, we have initiated ex officio penal action against such erring developers. Now, having a QR code on the advertisements is also mandatory, to enable home buyers to access project?s detailed information at a single click,? said Ajoy Mehta, Chairman, MahaRERA.

According to him, the regulator cannot ignore the new age media, where newer avenues of advertising are being created. Thus, MahaRERA is taking help of ASCI and experts in the field to identify and prevent such misleading or incomplete advertisements across any medium.

For this, a core group will be formed to track, monitor, and evaluate such advertisements and eventually bring it to the notice of MahaRERA. This is also the first time any realty regulator in the country is making use of AI to monitor and identify errant promoters of real estate projects.