Alongside an improved forecast for the future of the Indian property market, there are further problems anticipated as sales start to grow outside the framework of a regulatory body - so the property industry is calling for an efficient and focused national regulatory body to make the sector more transparent and to make it easier to solve problems and deal with complaints...

The property market in India has traditionally been unorganized and fragmented. Whilst the real estate market still lacks transparency and liquidity compared to more mature markets, things are improving and the potential regulatory body should go a long way to boosting the property sector.

Whilst the improvement in the predictions for the health of the 2009 market is obviously a good sign, in line with the increasing number of sales comes an increasing number of chances that something could go wrong.

Currently, India has no real estate regulator and, in order to push the sector to the next level, it is felt that this is something that needs to be introduced as soon as possible.

Assocham, the industry body, has said, "There is a need for an efficient and focused regulatory body to overlook the functioning of the real estate sector in order to insure the future development of the industry and safeguard consumer interests in line with international benchmarks."

"A real estate regulator would ensure that the consumer grievances against developers, development authorities, real estate agents and financial institutions are addressed without any delay," it added.

Indian property industry bods are hoping that the introduction of the new body will encourage more international property investors into the market, as it will increase their confidence in the transparency of transactions. Currently, there is little or no protection for buyers against unscrupulous developers in the form of full escrow account facilities.