NRI Property Buying & Selling in India from the USA

Buying Property in India as an NRI or OCI from the USA

NRIs and OCIs can legally buy most residential and commercial property in India, and the entire purchase can be completed from the USA through a Power of Attorney holder without ever boarding a flight. The rules that govern what you can own, how you can pay, and who can sign for you come primarily from the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and RBI regulations, and getting them wrong at the outset creates headaches years later at resale or repatriation.

What You Can — and Cannot — Purchase

Under FEMA, 1999, an NRI or OCI is permitted to purchase residential property (an apartment, independent house, or plot for residential construction) and commercial property (office space, retail units, warehouses) anywhere in India, with no cap on the number of properties. What is generally restricted is agricultural land, plantation property, and farmhouses — these can typically only be acquired by inheritance or gift, not by ordinary purchase, unless the Reserve Bank of India grants specific permission for a particular case. We see confusion most often with clients from Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, where ancestral land is agricultural in the revenue records; before you commit earnest money on a "farmhouse" listing near Chandigarh or Kochi, have the land classification verified, because a residential-looking property built on agricultural land can leave an NRI buyer in a legally awkward position.

The Remote Purchase Process, Step by Step

Most of our USA-based clients — from the Bay Area and Los Angeles to Houston, Dallas, Edison, and Chicago — never travel to India during the purchase. The typical structure is: (1) shortlist the property and negotiate price; (2) commission independent title due diligence on the seller's chain of ownership, encumbrances, and pending litigation; (3) for under-construction projects, verify the builder's RERA registration; (4) execute a registered Power of Attorney authorizing a trusted representative — often a parent, sibling, or our office — to sign the agreement to sell, pay stamp duty, and complete registration; (5) route the purchase consideration through an NRE or NRO account so the paper trail matches FEMA requirements; (6) complete registration of the sale deed at the local Sub-Registrar's office under the Registration Act, 1908. Because your POA holder physically appears before the Sub-Registrar, your own presence in India is rarely required for a straightforward purchase.

Title Due Diligence Is Non-Negotiable

A clean-looking listing photo tells you nothing about whether the seller actually has marketable title. Before any earnest money changes hands, our team pulls the last 30 years of title documents, checks the encumbrance certificate for outstanding mortgages, confirms there is no pending partition suit or injunction under Order 39 Rules 1-2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and verifies property tax payments are current. For resale flats bought from a builder originally, we also confirm the original allotment letter and occupancy certificate exist — gaps here are one of the most common reasons NRI buyers end up in disputes years after purchase. This is the same diligence discipline we apply on our title dispute and due diligence service, and it is far cheaper to do properly before you buy than to litigate afterward.

RERA Verification for Under-Construction Property

Every project marketed as under-construction must be registered with the state Real Estate Regulatory Authority under RERA, 2016, and the registration number should appear on the builder's marketing material and the state RERA website. Checking it before booking confirms the promised possession date, the sanctioned layout plan, and that buyer payments flow into a project-specific escrow account rather than the builder's general funds. If a builder cannot produce a valid RERA number for an ongoing project, treat that as a hard stop, not a negotiating point.

Financing the Purchase: NRE and NRO Home Loans

Most major Indian banks and housing finance companies extend home loans to NRIs, with EMIs serviced from an NRE or NRO account. Typical requirements include US income proof (pay stubs, W-2s, or tax returns), a Power of Attorney authorizing someone in India to coordinate paperwork and site visits, standard KYC documents, and the same title verification a cash buyer would need. Loan-to-value ratios and eligible tenure for NRI borrowers can differ from resident borrowers, so it is worth comparing two or three lenders rather than accepting the first offer from a developer's in-house financing partner.

Selling Property in India as an NRI from the USA

Selling is where most of the compliance risk sits — not in finding a buyer, but in getting the tax deduction and the repatriation of proceeds right under Indian and FEMA rules. An NRI seller who skips the planning step often discovers, only at the bank counter, that a much larger chunk of the sale price than expected has been withheld as TDS, or that moving the money to the USA needs paperwork nobody warned them about.

TDS Under the Income Tax Act, 1961

When a buyer purchases property from an NRI seller, the Income Tax Act, 1961 requires the buyer to deduct tax at source (TDS) on the transaction, and the default rate applied to NRI sellers is materially higher than the rate applied when the seller is a resident Indian — and it is generally calculated on the full sale consideration, not just the profit, unless the seller intervenes. This surprises many of our clients: a property purchased decades ago for a modest sum, now selling for a large gain, can see a very large amount withheld at the point of sale even though the actual capital gain (long-term or short-term, depending on the holding period) is a smaller figure. The corrective step is to apply to the Assessing Officer having jurisdiction over the seller's PAN for a lower-deduction or nil-deduction certificate before the sale closes, so the buyer deducts TDS only on the real, computed capital gain rather than the gross sale price. This application takes time to process, so it should be initiated well before you sign the sale agreement, not after.

Documentation for a Smooth Sale

Sellers should have ready: the original title deed and the chain of prior sale deeds, an updated encumbrance certificate, latest property tax receipts, PAN card, passport and OCI or visa documentation, and NRE/NRO account details for receiving payment. If you cannot travel to India to sign the sale deed and appear before the Sub-Registrar yourself, a registered Power of Attorney lets your representative complete the sale on your behalf, following the same execution and consulate-attestation steps required for a USA-executed POA — see our dedicated Power of Attorney for NRIs service for that process in detail.

Repatriating Sale Proceeds to the USA

Once a sale closes, proceeds are typically credited to the seller's NRO account in India, and moving that money to the USA is governed by FEMA, 1999 and RBI rules rather than by the Income Tax Act alone. The commonly cited ceiling is repatriation of up to USD 1 million per financial year from an NRO account (inclusive of other eligible remittances in that year), and the transfer requires a chartered accountant in India to certify Forms 15CA and 15CB confirming that applicable Indian taxes on the sale have been paid or provided for. Skipping this certification, or attempting to route the entire sale price through informal channels, is one of the fastest ways to have a remittance frozen at the bank's end. We coordinate directly with a chartered accountant on our client's behalf so the 15CA/15CB paperwork, the TDS reconciliation, and the bank's repatriation request move in the correct sequence.

Why NRIs in the USA Choose Us for Property Purchase & Sale

How We Handle Your Purchase or Sale, Start to Finish

1. Free Consultation from the USA

   We review your goal — buying, selling, or both — your property location, and your timeline on a call that fits your US time zone.

2. Title & Compliance Review

   We pull title records and encumbrance certificates (for a purchase) or organize your ownership documents and PAN records (for a sale).

3. Power of Attorney Setup

   If you cannot travel, we guide you through notarization, apostille or consulate attestation, and registration of a POA for your representative in India.

4. TDS or RERA Handling

   Sellers: we help apply for a lower-TDS certificate with the Assessing Officer. Buyers: we confirm the project's RERA registration and escrow compliance.

5. Registration & Fund Movement

   We coordinate sale-deed registration at the Sub-Registrar and route consideration through your NRE/NRO account correctly.

6. Repatriation Paperwork (Sellers)

   We work with a chartered accountant to prepare Forms 15CA/15CB and complete the FEMA-compliant transfer of your proceeds to the USA.

Due-Diligence Checklist for Either Transaction

Whether you are buying or selling, walking through this list before you sign anything catches most of the problems we see in practice.

Related Reading & Services

This page focuses on the transaction itself. For the underlying documentation and dispute-prevention pieces, see our NRI property dispute resolution overview, our title dispute and due diligence service, and our Power of Attorney for NRIs guide covering USA notarization, apostille, and consulate attestation. On the financial side, our banking and repatriation of funds service and NRI taxation and income tax service go deeper into FEMA remittance limits and tax filing obligations respectively, and our capital gains & TDS on property sale service covers the TDS deduction, lower-TDS certificate, and capital gains calculation in full detail. For a full walkthrough of the TDS and repatriation numbers with worked examples, read our blog post NRI Property Selling Guide: TDS & Repatriation. If you're based in the Houston, Dallas, or Austin area, our Texas NRI legal services page covers local consulate jurisdiction and community-specific guidance. For the full FEMA framework on what can and cannot be purchased, see FEMA rules for NRI property ownership, and if agricultural or ancestral farmland is involved, read Can an NRI sell agricultural land in India?

Frequently Asked Questions