What a Developer May Say, and When: advertising real estate under RERA

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) is a central Act, and each state's authority issues orders under it. This note uses Maharashtra and its regulator, MahaRERA, as the worked example.

Registration comes before the first word

Section 3 of RERA bars a promoter from advertising, marketing, booking, selling, offering for sale or inviting anyone to purchase a plot, apartment or building in a real estate project in any planning area until the project is registered. Each phase of a phased project needs its own registration [1]. The exemptions still relevant are narrow: land of 500 square metres or less, eight apartments or fewer counting all phases, and renovation, repair or redevelopment that involves no marketing, advertising, selling or new allotment [1].

The Act defines an advertisement widely: any document described or issued as an advertisement through any medium, including a notice, a circular or publicity in any form, that tells people about a project, offers a unit for sale, or invites them to buy or to pay an advance or deposit [1].

A breach of section 3 can cost up to ten per cent of the estimated project cost. Continuing the breach, or ignoring the order that follows, carries up to three years' imprisonment, a fine of up to a further ten per cent, or both [1]. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 changed section 68 of RERA, on allottees who disobey tribunal orders, with effect from 7 May 2026 [2]. We found no amendment to sections 3 or 59.

MahaRERA has applied section 3 to a teaser campaign. In 2019 it directed a developer to pay Rs 30 lakh under section 59, at Rs 1 lakh for each of 30 billboards put up in Mumbai and Pune before the project was registered [3][4]. A published summary dates the order 27 August 2019 and says the billboards carried a disclaimer that they were not an advertisement or an offer for sale [4]. The Authority still recorded a prima facie violation of section 3(1) and, noting the developer's unconditional apology, called the sum a token penalty [3].

"No promoter shall advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase in any manner any plot, apartment or building ... without registering the real estate project with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority". Section 3(1), RERA [1]

What every advertisement must carry

Section 11(2) requires each advertisement or prospectus issued or published by the promoter to mention prominently the Authority's website address and to include the project's registration number [1]. Maharashtra adds a QR code. Order 46/2023 of 29 May 2023 introduced one for every registered project and required it on every project promotion or advertisement from 1 August 2023, beside the registration number and website address [5].

Order 46C/2025, issued on 8 April 2025 with immediate effect, fixes how these items must appear [6]:

• The registration number and website address must be in a font at least as large as the largest font used for the project's contact details and address.
• Both must sit in the top-right quadrant of the advertisement, in a colour that ensures high visibility.
• The QR code must keep its aspect ratio, be readable by a scanning application and sit in the same quadrant.

The order names newspapers and magazines, flyers, brochures, prospectuses, standees at sites and sales offices, project websites and social media, then any other advertisement or promotion [6]. A press report of the order reads it as covering hoardings, WhatsApp and similar platforms as well [7]. A registered agent who advertises must quote the agent's own registration number together with the project's, under Rule 14(2) of Maharashtra's 2017 rules [6].

Each violation of the order carries a penalty of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000, under section 63 for promoters and section 65 for agents, and a fault left uncorrected ten days after the penalty is treated as a continuing violation [6]. Leaving out the number or the website address is also a breach of section 11(2) itself, for which section 61 allows a penalty of up to five per cent of the estimated project cost [1]. MahaRERA's orders page, read on 4 October 2026, lists no later order on advertisement display [8].

For finished projects one order points the other way. On 26 April 2023 MahaRERA held that a developer who advertised a completed project without its registration number had not breached section 11(2), because the occupation certificate predated the advertisement [9]. It is a single order, known here from a press report and older than the QR code orders, so take advice before relying on it.

What a false statement costs

Section 12 protects anyone who pays an advance or deposit on the strength of a notice, advertisement, prospectus or model apartment. If a statement in it was incorrect or false and the person suffers loss, the promoter must compensate. A buyer who chooses to withdraw is owed the entire investment back with interest at the prescribed rate, plus compensation, which an adjudicating officer decides after weighing the gain made, the loss caused and whether the default is repeated [1].

The Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal applied this to a Mumbai project where buyers had booked in 2012 and 2013 on the strength of advertisements and a brochure, and where promised amenities were later dropped and possession delayed. It held that sections 12 and 18 applied although the bookings predated RERA, because the project was still incomplete when the Act came into force, and ordered refunds with interest at two per cent above State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of lending rate. The Bombay High Court upheld the order and the Supreme Court dismissed the promoters' petitions [10].

Section 7 also lets the Authority revoke a registration for unfair practice, which includes falsely representing that services are of a particular standard or grade, claiming an approval or affiliation the promoter lacks, and permitting advertisements of services not intended to be offered [1].

Agents, channel partners and their staff

Section 9 bars an agent from facilitating a sale or purchase in a registered project without registering with the Authority, and the agent must quote the registration number in every sale [1]. MahaRERA's guidance reads this to cover advertising and brokerage as well [11].

Under section 10 an agent must not facilitate a sale in an unregistered project, make false or misleading statements, whether spoken or written, claim an approval or affiliation that the promoter or the agent lacks, or allow advertisements of services not intended to be offered. The penalty under section 62 is Rs 10,000 for each day of default, up to five per cent of the cost of the unit concerned [1].

Maharashtra also requires a qualification. Order 41/2023 of 10 January 2023 introduced training and an examination leading to a MahaRERA Real Estate Agent Certificate of Competency, for individual agents, the authorised signatory of an agency and every agency employee who deals with homebuyers [12]. After extensions, Order 41B/2023 fixed 1 January 2024 as the date from which only certificate holders may apply for registration or renewal and promoters may name only certified agents in their project filings [13].

Two orders of 29 April 2024 enforce this. Order 52/2024 put the registration of every agent without an uploaded certificate in abeyance, barred those agents from facilitating sales in the meantime, and provided for revocation if the certificate was not filed within a year [14]. Order 53/2024 tells promoters that naming an agent who lacks a valid registration and certificate can lead to rejection of the project application, revocation of the project's registration or a penalty [15]. On 23 May 2024 MahaRERA said it had suspended the registrations of 20,000 agents on this ground [16].

What MahaRERA has fined

In July 2024 MahaRERA was reported to have acted against 628 projects for advertising without the registration number or QR code, with penalties of Rs 88.9 lakh in all [17]. ASCI, citing media reports, gives the same number as a count of developers [18]. On the first count that is about Rs 14,000 a project.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) does part of the detection. On 15 February 2024 it agreed with MahaRERA to track advertisements published without the number and QR code and bring them to the regulator's notice [19]. Between April and September 2024 ASCI reviewed 2,115 real estate advertisements and reported 1,027 of them to MahaRERA [18].

A Pune order of 12 June 2025 shows the route. ASCI picked up an Instagram post with no registration number, website address or QR code, wrote to the promoter on 6 December 2024 asking for it to be changed or withdrawn by 17 December and, when it was not, referred the matter to MahaRERA. The promoter pleaded an oversight by its social media team, since corrected. MahaRERA imposed Rs 10,000 under section 61 for the breach of section 11(2) and Rs 10,000 under section 63 for breach of Order 46/2023, and directed that payment be verified before any application for extension or correction on the project is processed [20].

In an order reported in July 2026, a Pune developer was fined Rs 15,000 under section 63 for a free classified advertisement that carried all three items but printed the number and website smaller than the contact details. The developer said the deviation was its advertising agency's and that the classified was a free add-on to a larger, compliant advertisement. MahaRERA held the promoter liable all the same [21].

The individual sums are small. They are charged for each violation [6], MahaRERA publishes its suo motu advertisement orders with the promoter named [22], and the Pune order made payment a condition of processing later applications on the project [20]. ASCI's report for 2025-26 ranks realty the second most violative sector it handled, with 643 cases [23].

The ASCI code and creators

ASCI's Code is a self-regulatory code for advertisers, advertising agencies and media. Factual claims must be capable of substantiation, an advertisement must not mislead by implication or omission, and it must contain nothing in breach of the law and omit nothing the law requires [24]. ASCI's published guidelines include none specific to real estate, so the general Code applies, along with general guidelines such as those on disclaimers and on awards. A disclaimer may clarify a claim but may not contradict it or correct a misleading one. An award or ranking needs the awarding body's written consent and, for annual awards, must be no more than twelve months old [25].

Creators fall under ASCI's Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media. A disclosure label is required wherever there is a material connection between advertiser and influencer, which includes payment, free or discounted products, gifts, trips or hotel stays, and family or employment ties. The label must be upfront and drawn from ASCI's permitted list (Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership and a few others). Both advertiser and influencer are responsible, and the advertiser is expected to have a non-compliant post edited or deleted [25].

A paid walkthrough reel therefore needs the disclosure label. If it promotes a registered project it is also, on our reading of RERA's definition and Order 46C, a social media advertisement that should carry the registration number, website address and QR code [1][6][25].

The rules in one table

A quiet sale under the same rules

Nothing in the text of RERA exempts private circulation. Section 3 covers an invitation to purchase made in any manner, and the definition of advertisement has no audience threshold [1]. That is our reading of the text. We found no MahaRERA order that creates an exception for invitation-only selling, and no ruling that tests the point.

On that reading, a discreet sale is a registered project sold to a short list:

• Registration comes before the first conversation that invites a purchase. Teasers, hoardings with disclaimers and booking forms wait until then.
• The invitation, whether a printed folio, a PDF, a private web page or a WhatsApp message, carries the registration number, website address and QR code as Order 46C requires [6].
• What is shown and said in the room counts. Section 12 reaches the model apartment, and section 10 reaches an agent's spoken statements [1].
• Buyers are introduced only by MahaRERA-registered agents who hold the certificate [1][13].
• The promoter takes no more than ten per cent of the price before a written agreement for sale is signed and registered, as section 13 requires [1].
• A hosted guest or creator who posts about the project uses a disclosure label [25].

One point is for counsel. Section 9(1) speaks of a plot, apartment or building "being sold by the promoter" in a registered project [1]. Whether a broker who handles only resales between private owners needs registration is a question to put to a lawyer.

ARKA is not a MahaRERA-registered agent. Its ARKA Realty desk plans the communication around a sale and sees that campaigns carry the project's registration details. Transactions run only through MahaRERA-registered agents, engaged for each mandate, and legal questions go to the client's counsel.

What to do with this

• Confirm the registration certificate for the exact phase before any creative is briefed.
• Build one master layout with the number, website address and QR code in the top-right quadrant, and use it for every format, including reels, WhatsApp creatives, standees and free classifieds.
• Scan the QR code on final artwork at final size.
• Keep a proof file for every claim, and compare the brochure, the model flat and the agreement for sale line by line.
• Check each agent's registration on the MahaRERA site and ask for the Certificate of Competency.
• Write the RERA markings and the disclosure label into every agency and creator contract. MahaRERA has penalised a promoter for an error the promoter attributed to its agency [21].