Dumb Question Amnesty: 15 basics, zero judgment

RERA is the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — the national law that requires builders to register most projects with a state regulator (here, UP-RERA) before they advertise or sell. Verified A registered project has a public registration number you can look up yourself on up-rera.in, a filed completion date, and rules about how your money is handled.

So when someone tells you to “check RERA”, they just mean: confirm the project is actually registered and read its filing yourself, instead of taking the sales desk's word for it. There's nothing embarrassing about asking — it's the first thing anyone should do.

Carpet area is the usable floor inside your own walls — what you could actually lay a carpet on; RERA defines it, and it's the honest measure of the space you get. Verified Super area (or super built-up) adds your share of common spaces — lobbies, stairs, lifts, corridors — so it's always the larger number, and it's often the one a price is quoted on.

On a Yamuna Expressway apartment the gap between the two is commonly meaningful, so a per-square-foot figure that looks low on super area can work out higher on carpet. Ask for both numbers, and ask which one the quoted price is built on.

An EOI is an Expression of Interest — a refundable, non-binding way to register that you're interested in a project, usually before it's RERA-registered. Because the project isn't registered yet, that EOI money sits outside the RERA escrow account; this is disclosed to you up front, not hidden. Verified

A booking is a different thing: it only exists after a project is RERA-registered, and your payment then goes into the project's RERA-protected separate account. So the honest order is interest first (refundable, outside escrow) and a booking later (after registration, into a protected account). Neither step is something anyone should rush you through.

On the pre-launch projects handled here, the EOI is written as fully refundable — it's an Expression of Interest, not a booking, and it sits outside the RERA escrow account because the project isn't registered yet. That's disclosed to you in writing, up front. Founder-stated

What you should do is simple: get the refund terms written on your receipt before you pay anything, and keep the paper trail. A refundable EOI is a way to hold your place in the queue without money at risk — never something with a deadline or a pressure line attached to it.

This is exactly what RERA's money rules are built for — but they only switch on once a project is RERA-registered. For a registered project, at least 70% of the money buyers pay has to sit in a project-specific separate (escrow) account and can only be drawn against certified construction progress, which limits a promoter's ability to divert your money elsewhere. Verified up-rera.in

Before a project is registered, an EOI you've paid is not inside that escrow — which is the honest reason to keep an EOI refundable and small, and to move to a real booking only once registration is in place. If a registered promoter fails, allottees have recognised standing under RERA and the insolvency process; it isn't automatic or instant, but you're not an unsecured afterthought either.

Escrow simply means your money goes into a ring-fenced account the builder can't freely spend. Under RERA, a registered project has to keep at least 70% of what buyers pay in a separate bank account, and can only withdraw it against certified construction progress — so money paid toward a flat is meant to build that flat, not fund something else. Verified

It's not a guarantee of anything, and it only applies once a project is registered; but it's the single biggest reason a registered, escrow-backed booking is safer than money paid before registration. You can confirm a registered project's separate-account details yourself from its public filing on up-rera.in.

An allotment letter is the developer's document saying a specific unit has been assigned to you, usually issued early, once you've booked. The registry — registration of the sale deed at the sub-registrar's office — is the government step that actually transfers legal ownership into your name, typically at or near possession, after stamp duty is paid. Verified

An allotment letter matters, but it isn't ownership; the registry is. Knowing which of the two you're holding tells you exactly where you stand in the process.

An agreement to sell is the promise: it records the terms — price, unit, timeline, what each side will do — and for a RERA-registered project the registered agreement for sale is the document that carries your statutory protections. Verified

A sale deed is the completion: the document that actually conveys ownership to you and gets registered at the sub-registrar's office, usually at possession. Put simply: agreement to sell means the deal is set; sale deed means the flat is legally yours.

No. A project can be genuinely pre-launch — the developer is still doing the paperwork and hasn't registered yet — without anyone doing anything wrong. What matters isn't the word “pre-launch”; it's how your money is handled while it's pre-launch. Founder-stated

The safe posture is a refundable Expression of Interest only before registration (with the refund terms in writing, and the disclosure that it sits outside escrow), and a real booking only once the RERA number exists. “Not registered yet” is a reason to keep your money refundable and ask questions — not, by itself, a reason to assume fraud, and not a reason to rush.

Under Section 13 of the RERA Act, a promoter cannot take more than 10% of a unit's cost as an advance or application fee before signing a written, registered agreement for sale with you. Verified · statutory

So if you're being asked to pay well beyond 10% with only a receipt and no registered agreement, that's the moment to slow down and ask for the agreement first. It's a statutory floor of protection that exists whether or not the sales desk brings it up.

Circle rate (also called the ready-reckoner or collector rate) is the minimum value the government sets for a property in an area, used to charge stamp duty and registration. The price you're quoted is the market or developer price, which can be higher.

Two things follow: stamp duty is charged on the higher of your actual consideration or the circle rate Verified · statutory, as of Jul 2026, and a quoted price far below circle rate is worth a second look. Circle rates are set by the authority and revised from time to time, so the exact current figure for your sector is something to confirm at registration rather than trust from memory. Not yet verified · confirm current figure at registration

No — and anyone who promises you it will isn't being straight with you. Appreciation is an outcome of many things — infrastructure actually being delivered, supply and demand, the wider economy — none of which can be promised in advance.

What can be shown is the past, dated and sourced: YEIDA's own residential land-allotment rate rose roughly 46–49% between 2021 and 2024, and a further ~40% between 2024 and 2026, per the authority's own office order and scheme brochures. Verified · as of 2026 See the sourced series →

But that's an authority land rate, not a resale price for any flat, and past movement is history, not a promise about your purchase. Judge value on the project's own merits and paperwork, not on a projected number. This page states no assured returns, rental guarantees or buyback promises, and none are attributed to anyone.

No. Here's the structure, plainly: on a new project, the developer pays the channel partner a commission out of its own marketing budget. You pay the same price whether you walk into the developer's sales office yourself or come through an authorised channel partner — the commission isn't added on top of your price, and a genuine advisor never charges you, the buyer, a fee. Founder-stated

What you're choosing between is the service and the honesty of whoever walks you through it, not a cheaper or dearer price. (What that commission actually is, in numbers, is a separate conversation — this answer is about the structure, not the percentage.)

The price is meant to be the same either way — that's the whole point of the structure above. There's no buyer cashback or rebate on offer here, from anyone: a genuine advisor is paid by the developer, not by shaving a kickback off your price. Founder-stated

Any “cashback” that depends on hiding something from the developer is exactly the kind of side arrangement that comes back to bite the buyer. If there's a real, sanctioned discount, it belongs written into your cost sheet with a date — visible, not whispered.

Most sales people are ordinary people doing an ordinary job, and plenty of them are perfectly decent — being liked isn't the same as being wrong. But warmth isn't a document. Founder-stated

The safety of a deal lives in the same few things regardless of who's describing it: the RERA registration you can look up yourself, where your money sits, and the terms in writing. Trust the person as much as you like — and still ask for the paperwork. A good salesperson won't mind; it's the request for paper, not the friendliness, that tells you where you stand.