NRI property due-diligence checklist

Investing into India from five thousand kilometres away removes your two most useful instruments: your eyes, and the ability to turn up unannounced. This is what to put in their place.

Before anything: decide what you are buying

An asset, or a story about an asset? If you cannot describe the employment base, the access, the habitation stage and the likely exit buyer in your own words, you are not yet ready to transact, however good the price sounds.

Documents to see, not to be told about

• Title documents and the chain of ownership — examined by an advocate you appoint and pay, never one introduced by the seller.
• Encumbrance certificate covering a meaningful period, not a single year.
• Approvals and layout sanction from the relevant authority, with the approval numbers legible and verifiable.
• RERA registration where applicable, checked on the authority's own portal rather than on a brochure.
• Land conversion and land-use status — agricultural land sold for residential use is a recurring and expensive trap.
• Property tax receipts and utility records, which quietly confirm possession history.

People to verify

• Is the seller the owner, or an agent with a power of attorney? Read the instrument itself.
• Is the developer registered, and what has it actually completed and handed over before?
• Is your advocate independent of the transaction? If the seller recommended them, appoint someone else.
• Who holds your power of attorney in India, what exactly does it permit, and how is it revoked?

Checks that cannot be done from abroad

Be honest about this list, because it is the reason remote purchases go wrong.

• Physical survey — that the boundaries on paper match the land on the ground.
• Encroachment and possession — whether anyone is using it, and on what basis.
• Access — whether there is a legal, usable approach road, not a notional one on a plan.
• Neighbourhood reality — what is actually built, occupied and trading nearby.
• Local reputation of the developer, which is spoken rather than published.

Each of these requires someone physically present whose interests are aligned with yours. If nobody in your process is both on the ground and independent of the sale, that is the gap to close first.

Money and compliance

Route funds through banking channels only, into accounts in the seller's verified name, against receipts. Understand the applicable rules on holding and repatriating proceeds, and the tax treatment in both India and your country of residence. Take professional tax and FEMA advice specific to your residency status — general information, including this page, is not a substitute for it.

Before you wire

• Have you seen the property, or has someone independent seen it for you and documented it, dated?
• Is every promise in the marketing also in the agreement?
• What happens, contractually, if handover is late by two years?
• Can you name your exit buyer?
• Would you still make this decision if you were standing there?

This checklist is information, not legal, tax, financial or investment advice. Appoint qualified independent professionals for title, tax and regulatory matters.