How to check if a project is RERA registered, in 5 minutes

Every RERA advertisement rule says the same thing: the registration number must appear on every hoarding, brochure and listing. So a number will be shown to you. The real question is what that number actually says on the regulator's portal. This is the five-minute routine that answers it.

Why the check matters more than most buyers think#

By September 2025, Indian RERA authorities had registered about 1.51 lakh projects. But registration is not a permanent stamp. Registrations expire on the promised completion date, get extended, and in serious cases get revoked. Regulators also publish lists of lapsed projects, and MahaRERA alone has flagged thousands of projects over the years for failing to file updates.

A project that was validly registered in 2022 can be lapsed today. The hoarding will not tell you that. The portal will.

The 5-minute routine#

Step 1: get the number and go to the official portal#

Take the registration number from the brochure or ask the sales office. Then go directly to the state regulator's website. For Maharashtra that is maharera.maharashtra.gov.in, and every state authority is listed on the central RERA page of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; our step-by-step for the MahaRERA portal walks the Maharashtra search screen by screen. Type the portal address yourself. Do not follow a link the seller sends, and do not accept a PDF certificate as proof, since documents are easy to fabricate and portals are not.

Step 2: search and match, character by character#

Search by the registration number. When the project appears, match three things exactly: the project name, the promoter's legal entity name, and the address with survey number. A common trick is quoting the registration of Phase 1 while selling you Phase 2, which is legally a different project with its own registration. If you are being sold "Sunrise Heights Phase 2", the registration must say Phase 2.

Step 3: check the status and validity date#

Look for the registration status and the completion date the promoter committed to. There are three healthy answers: registered and within its validity, extended with a fresh date, or completed with an occupancy certificate. The unhealthy answers are lapsed, revoked, or expired with no extension on record.

Step 4: open the certificate and the promoter details#

The portal hosts the actual registration certificate. Open it and note the promoter entity. Large builders use a separate company or LLP per project, which is normal, but the entity on the certificate is the one your agreement must name. If the agreement names a different company, ask why in writing.

Step 5: glance at the filings#

While you are on the project page, look at two more things. First, the latest quarterly update: a project whose last progress report is several quarters old has a compliance problem even if its registration is technically alive. Second, the complaints or litigation section. One complaint in a large project is unremarkable. A cluster of delay complaints is a pattern, and the litigation history method turns that glance into a proper check.

What the portal will not tell you easily#

The state portal shows you today's snapshot of one project. What it does not show well:

• History. Portals overwrite old filings, so you cannot see whether bookings claims went up or down over the past year. The completion date is the exception: MahaRERA keeps both the original and the current promised date, so a slip is visible if you know to compare the two.
• The developer's other projects. Track record lives across many project pages and often across group companies with different names.
• Context. Whether 55 percent booked is good or bad depends on the area, and the portal has no view across projects.

That gap is what ReraGenie is built to fill. Each project page carries the promoter's record across their other registrations, with a developer page for every promoter, and sets the project's numbers beside its district's. Since July 2026 we have also been recording each change to each filing, which the portal itself does not keep.

A worked example of the routine#

Take an illustrative project: the second phase of a tower in Baner, Pune, registered in August 2024 with completion promised for December 2027. The five-minute check confirms that the registration number on the brochure resolves on the portal to the same project name, phase and promoter, that no extension is on record, that quarterly filings are current, and that one complaint is at the hearing stage. Ten minutes more with the filing adds the texture: 61 percent of units booked, and construction at 45 percent with a little over a year to the promised date. Registered, and worth a sharper question about the timeline. That is the level of understanding the routine plus the filings gives you.

Special cases worth knowing#

Phases. Each phase of a township is registered separately, with its own number, dates and filings. Verify the phase you are buying, and treat the earlier phases as free track-record evidence about the same promoter on the same land.

Plotted developments. Plots are covered by RERA too, when the land exceeds 500 square metres and the layout has more than eight plots. A "RERA approved layout" claim is checkable exactly like a building.

Redevelopment projects. The sale component of a redevelopment is registrable like any project. The extra check: the development agreement with the society, because disputes there stall projects regardless of RERA compliance.

Agents. The person selling to you should also be registered: over 1.06 lakh agents hold RERA registrations nationally. An unregistered broker marketing a registered project is a compliance breach on the agent's side and tells you about the sales channel's discipline.

After the check#

If the project passes, the next verification layers are the documents (start with the 12 documents to check before buying, including the encumbrance certificate for the land itself) and the builder's delivery history (how to check a track record). Registration is the entry test, not the final exam.