A MahaRERA registration is the one document your project cannot launch without: no advertisement, no booking, not even an expression of interest until the number exists. Most registration delays are self-inflicted, a file that arrives incomplete and enters the correction loop. This is the complete file, the sequence, and the four gaps that bounce applications.

Key takeaways

  • The fee is Rs 10 per square metre, minimum Rs 50,000, maximum Rs 1 lakh; the document file is the real work.
  • The CERSAI search report must be dated within 10 days before the application, the file's only perishable document, so it is pulled last.
  • The Act gives the authority 30 days, with deemed registration on silence; scrutiny queries restart the clock in practice.
  • Everything you file becomes your public project page and your declared baseline: dates, areas and cost move from your control to the record.

What registration legally is

Registration under Section 3 of the RERA Act is a precondition to marketing any project on a plot above 500 square metres or with more than 8 units. The application (Section 4) is not a form; it is a sworn dossier: who owns the land, what is approved, what will be built, what it costs, when it completes, and which bank account the buyers' money enters. Two declared items deserve special respect, because they become enforceable against you verbatim: the completion date, which drives every future extension and buyer remedy, and the designated account under Section 4(2)(l)(D), which fences 70 percent of collections. Choose both like commitments, not estimates.

The file, in assembly order

Assembling the MahaRERA registration file
  1. 1

    Entity and account setup

    Promoter profile on the portal with the exact legal entity (company, LLP or partnership) that owns the project. Every past project of that entity, and of group entities, gets disclosed here.

  2. 2

    Title and encumbrance layer

    Legal title report in Format A from an advocate, plus encumbrance details on the promoter's letterhead. Weak title language is the most expensive gap: it invites queries and becomes a public document buyers' lawyers will read.

  3. 3

    Approvals layer

    Sanctioned layout and building plans and the commencement certificate from the planning authority. The CC's stage limit matters: what you register should match what is actually sanctioned, floor by floor.

  4. 4

    Financials layer

    Form 3 from a CA stating estimated project cost and the funding plan, plus the designated bank account details. These numbers calibrate your future Form 1/2/3 withdrawals, so sandbagging the cost estimate backfires quarterly.

  5. 5

    Declarations

    Form B: the promoter's sworn undertaking covering title, timelines and the 70 percent commitment. Signed by the authorised signatory whose authority documents are attached.

  6. 6

    CERSAI report, last

    The central registry search on the project land, dated within 10 days before application. Pull it after everything else is frozen, or it expires while you fix other gaps.

  7. 7

    Fee and submission

    Rs 10 per square metre online (minimum Rs 50,000, maximum Rs 1 lakh), then submission and the 30-day scrutiny clock.

Source: MahaRERA guidance for promoter registration; RERA Act Sections 3 to 5

An analogy: the IPO prospectus, scaled down

Registration is the project's IPO. The title report is the legal opinion, Form 3 is the financial statement, the completion date is guidance, and the portal page is the prospectus that stays live for the issue's whole life. Companies do not draft prospectuses casually because every line invites liability; the promoters who treat Form B with the same respect stop meeting MahaRERA's scrutiny team more than once.

The four gaps that bounce applications

  1. A stale or missing CERSAI report. The 10-day validity is the file's sharpest edge, and resubmission means a fresh pull anyway.
  2. Entity confusion. Land held by one group company, application filed by another, agreements planned under a third. The authority reads the title chain; align the entity before filing, not after.
  3. Plan-CC mismatch. Registering towers the commencement certificate does not yet cover, or areas that differ between the sanctioned plan and the application's unit table, the assembled FSI stack a Mumbai project must be able to defend line by line.
  4. Optimistic completion dates. Not a rejection ground, but the most expensive approval you can get. The date is public, buyers contract against it, and extensions have their own cost in penalties, disclosure and trust.
Tip

The 30-day deemed-registration clock (Section 5) only runs on a complete application. A scrutiny email asking for corrections effectively resets your timeline, so the fastest registration is not the earliest submission; it is the cleanest one.

The day the number arrives

Registration is not the finish line; it is the start of the disclosure treadmill. From day one: the QR-coded number on every advertisement, quarterly progress reports within 20 days of each quarter end, Form 1/2/3 certificates on every withdrawal from the designated account, annual Form 5 and Form 2A, and event-driven updates for plan changes and litigation. The full filing year is mapped in the compliance calendar, and everything you file lands on the public page that buyers are now taught to read before your sales team meets them.

That public page is also your permanent record in the market's eyes, which is where this connects back to the register as intelligence: your registration quality, filing punctuality and date discipline are exactly the signals competitors, lenders and ReraGenie's own project analysis read. A promoter planning a launch can run the Rs 2,999 project analysis on their own filing history first, the same document a sharp buyer or lender would commission, and fix what it flags before the market prices it.

The one-line summary

Rs 10 per square metre buys the number, but the dossier is the product: clean title language, an aligned entity, plans that match the CC, honest cost and dates, and a CERSAI report pulled last. File it like a prospectus, because from approval day, it is one.

Evaluating a micro-market or a land parcel?

The ReraGenie project analysis reads every filing in your competitive set: supply, absorption, pricing and promoter records. Rs 2,999 per project, area consolidated reports from Rs 2,999.

See the project analysis