The Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Punjab has issued a circular to clarify the promoters about the category in which projects for construction of villas or independent floors on individual plots fall, for the purpose of payment of registration fee.Citing the definition of apartment as defined under the section 2 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, the RERA in its circular clarified “Apartments whether called block, chamber, dwelling unit, flat, office, showroom, shop, godown, premises, suit, tenement, unit or by any other name, means a separate and self-contained part of any immovable property, including, one or more floors or any part thereof, in a building or on a plot of land, used or intended to be used for any residential or commercial use such as residence, office, shop, showroom or godown or for carrying on any business, occupation, profession or trade or for any other type of use ancillary to the purpose specified.”It has been further clarified that in the light of above cited definition, villas or independent floors constructed on individual plots clearly fall under the definition of an ‘Apartment’ as these are self contained residential units built on plots of land. Hence, such projects are liable to pay registration fees applicable for the category of ‘Group Housing’ as defined in schedule 1 of the rule.It can be mentioned here that RERA has noticed that promoters were not clear about the category in which projects for construction of villas or independent floors on individual plots fall, for the purpose of payment of registration fee, as this type of development does not fall in the list of categories notified in Schedule 1 of the Punjab State Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules 2017. The relevant entries in Schedule 1 mentions only ‘Group Housing’ and ‘Residential Plotted’.