The Under-Construction Playbook: Five RERA Checks Before You Book
Buying Guide · 03 July 2026
Under-construction homes carry the best pricing, and the most homework. These are the five Karnataka RERA checks we run before any client writes a booking cheque.
Under-construction is where the value sits in Bengaluru, earlier entry pricing, staged payments, and appreciation that accrues while the towers rise. The trade-off is homework. The good news: Karnataka RERA gives buyers real, enforceable protections, provided you actually use them. Here is the exact checklist we run at Propterra before a project ever reaches a client.
Check 1: Project status on the K-RERA portal
Before any booking amount changes hands, look the project up on the Karnataka RERA portal. The registration should be live and the status should read Ongoing, not Lapsed, and not under investigation. Confirm the promoter’s registration is current, read the complaint list against the project and the developer, and compare the RERA-registered completion date with whatever date the sales team quoted you. If those two dates disagree, believe the portal.
Check 2: The 70% escrow rule
RERA requires developers to park 70% of everything collected from buyers in a project-specific escrow account, usable only for that project’s construction and land cost. This is the rule that prevents your money from quietly funding a different project. Ask for the escrow account details to be named in the agreement for sale, a compliant developer will not hesitate.
Check 3: Carpet-area pricing, always
RERA mandates that under-construction homes are sold on carpet area, the floor you can actually walk on, not super built-up area. When comparing projects, reduce every quote to a carpet-area price. Loading (the gap between carpet and super built-up) varies from the low twenties to the high thirties in percentage terms across Bengaluru projects, which is easily the difference of an entire room.
Check 4: Delay compensation cuts both ways
If possession is delayed, the developer owes you interest for every month of delay at roughly 2% above the SBI marginal cost of lending rate, the same rate you would owe them for delaying your instalments. Make sure the possession date and any grace period are written into the agreement for sale, not just printed in the brochure. Brochures are marketing; the agreement is enforceable.
Check 5: Quarterly progress filings
Developers must file quarterly progress updates on the K-RERA portal, and any change to sanctioned plans needs regulatory consent. This means you can track your project’s real status from your desk, collections, construction stage, approvals, rather than relying on site visits and WhatsApp updates from the sales office.
The Propterra standard
Every project listed on our platform clears all five checks before we show it, and each project page carries its RERA number for you to verify independently. If a project you are considering, ours or anyone else’s, fails even one of these, that is not a discount opportunity. It is your cue to walk away.