How to check a builder's track record before you book

The single best predictor of your project being delivered on time is not the brochure, the brand campaign or the sample flat. It is what the same promoter did with their last three projects. That history is now public, sworn and checkable, yet almost no buyer assembles it. This is the method, in five steps, using only public records.

Why track record beats every other signal#

A real estate project is a promise stretched over years. The promoter controls the two things that break promises: money discipline and execution pace. Both are habits, and habits repeat. RERA turned those habits into data: every registered project carries a declared completion date, an extension history, quarterly construction and sales figures, and litigation records. Multiply that by a promoter's portfolio and you have a behavioural file that no advertising budget can rewrite.

The scale of the record is substantial: over 1.51 lakh projects registered nationally as of September 2025, with Maharashtra alone past 50,000. Whatever builder you are evaluating, the evidence exists.

Step 1: identify the real entity, and the group behind it#

Take the promoter name from the project's RERA certificate. Now the catch: most developers register each project under a separate company or LLP, so "Sunrise Skyline LLP" may be one of a dozen entities of the Sunrise group. Search the state portal for sibling entities by name pattern, the group's website for its project list, and match each claimed project to a registration. The gap between the marketing portfolio ("25 landmark projects") and the verifiable registered portfolio is itself information.

This is tedious by hand, which is why ReraGenie resolves group entities into one developer page with the full registered portfolio attached, human-verified.

Step 2: build the delivery table#

For each completed project: the completion date originally declared to RERA, and the date the occupancy certificate actually arrived. Three or more data points give you a pattern:

• Delivered early or on time consistently: the strongest positive signal that exists in this market.
• Slips of 3 to 6 months: common, manageable, price it in.
• A pattern of 12-month-plus slips, or projects still "ongoing" years past their dates: the record is telling you your project's future.

Judge larger projects separately. Many promoters deliver 100-unit buildings on time and stumble at 400-unit townships, so weight the projects that resemble yours in scale.

Step 3: count the extensions#

Extensions are formal events on the RERA record. One extension across a portfolio, or the COVID-period blanket extension, is unremarkable. Extensions on most of the portfolio are a habit of overpromising. The extension trail also shows you how honestly the promoter communicates: dates moved quietly on the portal but never conveyed to buyers is a culture, and cultures repeat too.

Step 4: read the litigation pattern#

RERA project pages list complaints and orders. Read them for pattern, not existence: any large project accumulates a complaint or two. Clusters of delay complaints across multiple projects, orders the promoter failed to comply with, or recovery proceedings, are the escalating tiers of warning. Add a search of the state RERA's orders section by promoter name, since orders sometimes attach to entities rather than projects. The full six-database method, including insolvency and consumer-forum searches, is in how to check a builder's litigation history.

Step 5: check the pulse of their current projects#

The past is prologue; the present is cash flow. For each ongoing project of the group, two quarterly series matter: construction percentage and bookings percentage. Healthy groups show steady construction progress and sales at or above their area's pace. A flat construction line while sales continue is the earliest symptom in the sequence that ends in a stall, documented in our data story on stalled projects. A group whose flagship is 30 percent sold after two years while its area sells 6 percent a quarter has a revenue problem that eventually becomes your delay. The QPR reading guide explains the mechanics, and ReraGenie's project pages plot the series against area benchmarks directly.

Scoring it: a simple rubric#

Give the promoter one point each for: majority of recent projects delivered within 6 months of promise, no more than one extension across the recent portfolio, no unresolved compliance failures in orders, current projects selling at or above area pace, and current projects' construction advancing every quarter. Four or five points: proceed with normal caution. Three: proceed only with a price or payment-plan concession that compensates the risk. Two or fewer: the discount does not exist that pays for this file.

Beyond RERA: two corroborating checks#

Two public sources corroborate what the filings tell you. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal shows the promoter entities' filing status, charges registered by lenders, and director networks: an entity that skips its MCA filings is showing the same discipline it will show on your project, and the charges index reveals which lenders trusted the group with construction finance. Second, the lender list on the project itself: approved project finance from a major bank means a credit team has reviewed title, approvals and cash flow with more access than any buyer gets. Neither source replaces the RERA record, but when all three agree, in either direction, you can act with confidence.

Where this fits in your sequence#

Track record is step two of the full verification stack, after confirming the registration and alongside the document checklist. Fifteen minutes on assembled filings replaces weeks of asking around, and unlike opinions, filings are sworn. The buyer report on any ReraGenie project page includes the promoter's full delivery table, so the pattern arrives pre-assembled.