Due diligence for NRIs buying property in India

Buying property in India from another country is ordinary now. Parents visit the site, a cousin attends the registrar’s office, and the buyer joins by video. The ordinary part is also the risk. The buyer is depending on people who are physically present, and on scans of documents they cannot feel. A due diligence review for a non-resident is the same property work a resident needs, plus a harder look at authority and at money.

Know which property you are allowed to buy

Residential and commercial purchases by non-resident Indians are a familiar part of the market. Agricultural land, plantation property, and farmhouses are a different category. Under the foreign-exchange framework, acquisition of those by non-residents is generally restricted. Confirm the current rule for your actual status before you pay, and do not accept a plotted “farmhouse” project as if the label on the brochure settled the law. A resident family member buying in their own name, with your funds, creates a different set of problems. It is not a tidy workaround.

Read the power of attorney as a document, not as a favour

If someone in India will sign for you, or if the seller’s relative will sign for the seller, the power of attorney is part of the title file. Look for three things. First, does it name this act and this property, or is it a general authority to do anything? General powers are a frequent source of later disputes. Second, is it still in force, or can it be revoked without you knowing? Third, was it executed in a way India will recognise — often an apostille or a consular step when it is signed abroad — and has it been stamped or adjudicated as that state requires?

Those last formalities are local. A document that was perfectly notarised in one country can still be the wrong shape for a sub-registrar in a particular Indian city. Build the time for that into the deal. A relative who says “we will adjust it on the day” is describing a queue, not a plan.

Payments and originals

• Pay into an account that matches the seller in the draft deed. A request to divert part of the price to a third party needs a reason you can show a bank later.
• Keep your own set of every receipt. Do not rely on the attorney’s phone as the only archive.
• Ask which originals will be inspected by someone you trust before the balance moves. Scans are enough to start a review. They are a poor way to end one.
• Have the title, encumbrance, approval, and dues checks done against registers, not against the seller’s summary. Distance makes a confident summary cheaper to send than a complete file.
• Time the explanatory call for your hours. A report you cannot ask questions about is only half delivered.

None of this replaces an advocate where the transaction needs an opinion addressed to you, or a chartered accountant where the repatriation and tax questions matter. It is the property check that should happen before those professionals are asked to bless a file they have not seen. If you are abroad, start that check before the token. Recovering a token from another time zone is slower than reading a deed.