How an NRI buys land in Maharashtra

The rule that catches most people

An NRI or OCI cannot buy agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse in India. This is set out under FEMA and it is not negotiable without approval from the Reserve Bank of India, which is rarely given for this purpose.

You can inherit agricultural land. You can buy residential and commercial property freely. But you cannot purchase agricultural land — and in the Konkan, most land is agricultural, and a mango or cashew orchard is plantation property, the most explicitly barred category of all.

This is why we are not selling to you yet, and why our NA conversion matters more to you than it does to a local buyer.

1. What you are allowed to buy

Residential property — flats, houses, and non-agricultural (NA) residential plots. Permitted.
Commercial property — shops, offices, commercial NA plots. Permitted.
Agricultural land, plantation property, farmhouses — not permitted for purchase. Inheritance is allowed.

A plot only becomes buyable by you once it has been converted to non-agricultural use and the sanad has been issued. Ask for the sanad. Not a promise of one — the document.

2. Check these before you pay anyone a rupee

7/12 extract (satbara) — the record of rights. Whose name is on it, and does it match the person selling to you.
The NA sanad — proof of non-agricultural conversion. Without it, you cannot legally buy.
Sanctioned layout — approved plot layout showing roads, open space and your plot number.
MahaRERA registration number — a plotted development above the statutory threshold must be registered before it is advertised, booked or sold. Look it up yourself on the MahaRERA website.
Title search report — from your advocate, not the seller's. Typically covers the last 30 years.
Encumbrance certificate — confirms there is no loan or charge sitting on the land.
Mutation entries — the chain of ownership transfers, showing the land reached the seller cleanly.

Instruct your own advocate in India. The few thousand rupees it costs is the cheapest part of the transaction and the only part that is genuinely on your side.

3. Paying from abroad

Payment must go through normal banking channels. In practice that means one of:

Inward remittance from your bank abroad
Your NRE account (funded from foreign income — this is the route that keeps your repatriation position cleanest)
Your NRO account (funded from Indian income such as rent)

No cash. Not part of it, not "for the registration", not for anybody's convenience. Every rupee should be traceable to a bank transfer. If a seller asks for a cash component, that is your signal to leave — and it will damage your ability to take money out of India later.

Getting your money back out

Broadly, if you bought using NRE funds or inward remittance, the sale proceeds of up to two residential properties can be repatriated, subject to conditions and to tax being paid. NRO balances are repatriable up to the annual limit set by RBI. The rules have detail and they change — confirm your own position with a chartered accountant before you buy, not after you sell.

4. Buying without flying to India

You do not need to be present. The mechanism is a Power of Attorney:

The PoA is drafted in India by your advocate, naming someone you genuinely trust and specifying exactly what they may do — ideally limited to this one transaction.
You sign it at the Indian embassy or consulate in your country, where it is attested. (Alternatively it can be apostilled, depending on the country.)
It is couriered to India, stamped, and registered at the sub-registrar's office.
Your attorney can then complete registration on your behalf.

Keep the PoA narrow. A general power of attorney over all your affairs, given to someone at a distance, is how people lose property. Limit it to this purchase, and revoke it when the registration is done.

5. What it costs on top of the plot price

Stamp duty — a percentage of the agreement value, varying by location and by any concession in force.
Registration fee — a further percentage, subject to a cap.
Advocate's fees — for the title search and the documentation.
PoA — consular attestation, stamping and registration.
Development charges — where a layout includes internal roads, boundary, water and electrification, these are usually charged separately. Ask what is and is not included, in writing.

Insert current Maharashtra stamp duty and registration percentages here, with the date they were checked — and re-check them each year.

6. Your PAN and your tax position

You will need an Indian PAN to register a property purchase. If you later sell, the buyer is required to deduct TDS from the payment to you as a non-resident, at a materially higher rate than applies to resident sellers — and there is a procedure to reduce it if your actual gain is lower. Plan for that at the time you buy, not at the time you sell.

Warning signs, from people who have been burned

Be wary of: any request for cash · agricultural land offered to an NRI · a project advertised with no RERA number · pressure to pay a token amount "today" to hold a plot · photographs that turn out to be stock images or of a different site · a seller who discourages you from appointing your own advocate · returns quoted as a promise.

None of these are hypothetical. All of them are common.

A note on this project specifically

Our land is agricultural today and the NA conversion is in progress. Until the sanad and the MahaRERA registration are in hand, we are not selling, not booking and not accepting deposits from anyone. When that changes, the people on our interest list are contacted first.

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and rules change. Confirm your own position with an advocate and a chartered accountant in India before you commit to any purchase.