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If you live outside India and own a floor or house in South Delhi, selling it is not hard. This is the whole job, in the order that works: papers, price, buyer, agreement, tax, money.
By Ashutosh Bhogra · 8 min read · Nov 2026
Updated 1 November 2026 · Ashutosh Bhogra
If you live outside India and own a floor or house in South Delhi, selling it is not hard. It is slow in the wrong places and quick in the right ones. This is the whole job, in the order that works. Take your own legal and tax advice on your case; this is what we see from the seller's side, deal after deal.
Most owners abroad start by asking about a power of attorney. That is the wrong first step. Most owners fly down to sign the sale themselves, and many buyers prefer that. What actually holds up a sale from abroad is the title.
Three problems come up again and again:
Fix these from abroad, before anything else. It takes weeks, sometimes months. A seller who starts here saves all of that time at the end, when a buyer is waiting and the price is agreed.
A home priced too high sits. It sits for months, and then it sells for less than it would have in the first month, because every buyer who sees it in month four knows it has been sitting.
Price it from what floors or houses of similar size, location and age in your colony have actually sold for. Not from what the neighbours say. Neighbours will urge you to ask for more, because a high asking price next door raises the value of their own house. They are not selling. You are.
A seller has to ask a little above where the deal will close. That is normal. The mistake is pricing too high.
For a seller abroad, the right buyer is one who pays the whole price through the bank, has the money ready or a sanctioned loan, and understands that buying from an owner abroad means tax is held back from the price (more on that below). A buyer who has not done this before will slow you down at every step, and may walk away at the last one.
This is where experienced, clean professionals help more than most owners realise. Not in showing the house. In knowing which buyers in the market are ready, which lawyers will not create problems, and which family members on the buyer's side have to say yes. A sale from abroad has more moving parts than a sale from Delhi, and most of them are people.
Two ways to work with us: give us the sale alone for a fixed period and we put our whole effort on it; or keep it open to the market and it gets its share of attention like any other deal. Either way, only buyers who transact through banking channels visit, and you get a report every week.
Who holds the keys. Who shows the house. Who keeps it clean and the lights working while buyers visit. Who meets the buyer's lawyer and hands over copies of the papers. Who sits with the buyer's valuer if there is a loan. Settle all of this before the first visit, and write down who it is. A house that cannot be shown on a Tuesday afternoon because the keys are with an uncle in Noida loses buyers.
If you will come to Delhi to sign, plan one visit of about a week, and plan it for the end. Everything before the sale deed can be done without you in the room.
Once the buyer and price are agreed, there is a draft. It goes back and forth. Do not rush it; do not let it drift. It should say, plainly:
Agree the words, then sign. From here the clock runs.
When a buyer pays a seller who lives abroad, the buyer must hold back tax from the price and deposit it with the government. This is TDS. It is taken from the whole sale price, not from your gain, unless you have a certificate that says otherwise.
For a floor or house held more than two years, the rate is 12.5 per cent, plus a surcharge that depends on the size of the gain, plus a 4 per cent cess:
On a ₹15 crore sale, that is up to ₹2.24 crore held back before you see a rupee. Most of it comes back after you file your return, but that is months later.
You can apply to the tax office for a certificate that lets the buyer hold back less, or nothing. Under the Income-tax Act 2025, which came into force on 1 April 2026, this is Form 128, filed under section 395. Until last year it was Form 13 under section 197; you will hear both names.
You cannot apply before you have a buyer. The tax office wants the signed agreement to sell, with the price on it, filed with the application. So: agreement first, certificate second, sale deed third. The certificate usually takes three to four weeks. The agreement must give it that time.
The price on that agreement is what the tax office works from. Every rupee of the deal is on it, and every rupee goes through the bank. That is why this is how our clients transact. A cheque deal never comes back to you five years later with a notice.
Until September, a buyer paying an owner abroad needed a TAN, a separate tax-deduction number that takes days to get and put off many buyers. From 1 October 2026, under the Finance Act 2026, a buyer who is an individual or a Hindu undivided family living in India no longer needs one. He deposits the tax against his PAN. This is a procedural change only; the rate is the same.
It does not apply if the buyer is a company, a firm or an LLP, or if the buyer also lives abroad. Those buyers still need a TAN. Ask your buyer which he is, at the start.
The buyer pays the balance through the bank into your NRO account, less the tax held back. You, or your power of attorney holder, sign the sale deed at the registrar's office. The buyer pays stamp duty and registration. You hand over the keys and the originals.
To send the money abroad, your chartered accountant files two forms: Form 145 and Form 146, which until April 2026 were called 15CA and 15CB. Up to USD 1 million a financial year can go this way without asking the Reserve Bank.
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