Bhubaneswar, Jan. 25: A new rating system launched here today makes it easy for prospective homeowners to check feedback about a developer before deciding on their dream home.

The Genuine Reliability and Customer Satisfaction (G-RACS) star rating for developers, which aims to make the real estate sector transparent, would create opportunities for developers and builders to enhance reliability and brand visibility before prospective buyers - both in India and abroad. Buyers, on the other hand, will benefit from hassle-free deals.

D.S. Tripathy, the chairman-cum-managing director of gharabari.com, said they developed the rating system after requests, mostly from NRIs and people in other states who were interested in buying properties in Odisha.

"The rating system aims to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers apart from enhancing investment in the real estate sector," he said.

Tripathy said the state's real estate sector was suffering from acute trust deficit. "The demonetisation exercise hit the sector hard. Even those who have money are wary of buying property nowadays," he said, before adding that the rating would instil confidence in potential buyers.

"The G-RACS system will be based on accurate feedback from authentic customers," Tripathy said.

He added that the feedback will be gathered from existing customers of real estate companies with regards to their service, quality, delivery of possession coupled with their recommendations.

Tripathy said Odias residing abroad were apprehensive of investing in real estate as they visited once every one or two years and did not want to get entangled in legal hassles.