On a hoarding near Sarjapur Road, a Bengaluru buyer read three words that gave her false comfort. The banner said RERA Applied, printed in bold beside a launch offer and a countdown to a price rise. She assumed it meant the project was registered and safe. It did not. Applied is not approved, and under the law a project that has only applied cannot legally be marketed or sold to her at all. Learning to tell a real registration from a hopeful label is one of the most valuable checks a buyer can make, and it takes only a few minutes on an official website.

The short answer. Any project on land larger than 500 square metres, or with more than eight units, must be registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority before it can be advertised, booked, or sold. You can verify any project yourself on the official portal at rera.karnataka.gov.in by searching the project name, promoter, or registration number. The trade off is only a few minutes of effort, and it buys you a look at the registration status, the promised timeline, the approved plan, and any complaints on record. A missing or merely applied registration is a reason to stop, not a detail to overlook.

These rules sit in the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, and guides such as HomeFirst summarise how Karnataka applies them. Here is how to check a project the right way.

Which projects must be registered under RERA?

A project must be registered if it sits on land larger than 500 square metres or has more than eight units. The exemption is narrow. A project escapes registration only when both conditions are met, meaning the land does not exceed 500 square metres and the number of apartments does not exceed eight units, counting all phases together. Ongoing projects that have not yet received a completion certificate also have to be registered. In practice, almost every apartment project a Bengaluru buyer looks at will need registration, so its absence is a serious warning rather than a technicality.

The law is strict about what registration unlocks. Under Section 3, a developer is prohibited from advertising, marketing, booking, or selling any apartment or building without an active RERA registration number. So the registration is not paperwork that can follow a sale. It has to come first.

What does a RERA registration number actually tell you?

A registration number is your key to the project's official record, not just a badge of legitimacy. Once a project is registered, the authority holds a file on it that a buyer can open, covering the promoter's identity, the approved plan and unit sizes, the committed completion date, and the disclosures the builder has filed. Every advertisement is required to display the registration number and the website, precisely so a buyer can look the project up rather than take a claim on trust.

That record is what turns RERA from a slogan into a tool. The number lets you move from what a brochure says to what the developer has formally committed to on a government portal, where changing the story later is far harder.

It also helps to separate two ideas that sound alike. A RERA registration is not the same as the building plan or land approvals a project needs from the local authority. Those approvals concern whether the project can be built, while RERA registration concerns disclosure and accountability to buyers once it is being sold. A well run project has both, and a careful buyer checks each rather than assuming one covers the other. Treating a plan sanction as if it were a RERA registration, or the reverse, leaves a gap that the wrong developer can quietly exploit.

How do you verify a project on the Karnataka RERA portal?

You verify it by searching the official portal at rera.karnataka.gov.in and reading the project's listing. Open the website, go to the search or registered projects section, and look the project up by its name, registration number, promoter name, or city. The listing shows whether the registration is active, expired, or revoked, along with the promoter details, the completion timeline, and the compliance status. The table below sets out the specific things worth reading once you find the project.

What are the warning signs a buyer should watch for?

The clearest warning sign is any project being sold without an active registration number you can verify. If a sales team cannot give you a number that resolves to a live listing on the portal, treat that as a stop signal. An expired or revoked registration is just as serious, since it means the project has fallen out of good standing. Our coverage of what happens to buyers when a registration is revoked shows why that status is not a paperwork issue but a real risk to your money.

Other signals include a mismatch between the carpet area or timeline in the brochure and the figures on the portal, and pending orders against the promoter that a search will reveal. None of these on its own proves bad faith, but each is a question you want answered before you pay.

A practical habit is to save what you find. Take a screenshot of the portal listing, the registration status, and the completion date on the day you verify, and keep it with your booking papers. Registrations can change over time, and a dated record of what the portal showed when you booked is useful if a dispute arises later. It is also worth knowing that RERA requires a large share of the money buyers pay for a registered project to be held in a separate account and used only for that project, which is one of the protections you give up entirely when you buy something unregistered.

Is RERA applied the same as registered?

No. RERA applied, registration under process, and similar phrases are not the same as an active registration, and marketing a project that way is itself a violation. A developer may have submitted an application, but until the authority grants an active registration number, the project cannot lawfully be advertised or sold. Buyers are often reassured by these phrases precisely because they contain the word RERA, which is why the distinction is worth stating plainly. Only an active number on the portal counts.

If you see applied or under process on a hoarding or a brochure, the safe response is to wait until the registration is actually granted and verifiable, rather than booking on the strength of a label. The rules exist to protect buyers, and they do not begin to protect you until the registration is live.

Why does verifying RERA protect your money?

Verifying RERA protects your money because a registered project ties the developer to disclosures and timelines that the authority can enforce. When a project is on the register, the promised completion date, the approved plan, and the carpet areas are on official record, and buyers have a forum to raise complaints if the developer strays from them. A project outside the register offers none of that, so a buyer there is far more exposed if things go wrong. The same discipline pairs well with checking the RERA carpet area, since that figure is one of the disclosures the register is meant to lock in.

For a concrete sense of the kind of project where this check matters, a development such as Godrej Regent Park on Sarjapur Road is exactly the scale of apartment project that must carry an active registration a buyer can look up before booking.

What should you check before you book?

Run through these seven steps before you pay any booking amount, so you never rely on a label alone.

1. Ask the sales team for the project's RERA registration number in writing.
2. Search that number on the official portal at rera.karnataka.gov.in.
3. Confirm the registration status shows as active, not expired or revoked.
4. Check that the promoter name on the portal matches the party you are dealing with.
5. Compare the carpet area and completion timeline on the portal against the brochure.
6. Look for any pending complaints or orders against the promoter.
7. Treat RERA applied or under process as unregistered, and wait for an active number.

Which projects have to be registered under RERA in Karnataka?

Projects on land larger than 500 square metres or with more than eight units must be registered. A project is exempt only if both the land stays within 500 square metres and the units stay within eight, counting all phases. Ongoing projects without a completion certificate must also register before they are advertised or sold.

How do I check a project's RERA registration in Bengaluru?

Visit the official Karnataka RERA portal at rera.karnataka.gov.in and search by project name, registration number, promoter name, or city. The listing shows whether the registration is active, expired, or revoked, along with the promoter details, the approved plan, the completion timeline, and any complaints on record for that project.

Is a RERA applied project safe to book?

No. RERA applied or registration under process means the project does not yet have an active registration, and it cannot lawfully be advertised or sold in that state. Only an active registration number that resolves to a live listing on the portal offers you the protection RERA is meant to provide. Wait until the number is granted.

What should I do if a project has no RERA number?

Treat the absence of a verifiable, active RERA number as a reason to stop. Almost every apartment project in Bengaluru must be registered, so a missing number is a serious warning, not a technicality. Do not pay a booking amount until you can find and confirm the project on the official Karnataka RERA portal.

Last updated 2026-07-20. PropNewz Team.