Buying a South Delhi home from abroad

Buying from abroad is simpler than selling from abroad. No one holds back tax from your money, there is no certificate to apply for, and no money to take out of India, yet. Four things matter: whether you are allowed to buy, how the money comes in, what you pay at registration, and how you complete without being in Delhi.

If you hold an Indian passport and live abroad, or you hold an OCI card, you can buy a house or a floor in India. You do not need permission. What you cannot buy is farm land, a plantation or a farmhouse, so a South Delhi builder floor or house is fine, and a farmhouse in Chhatarpur is not. Your CA confirms your own position before you commit.

Every rupee comes through a bank. Either you send it from abroad, or you pay from your NRE, NRO or FCNR account in India. No cash, no foreign currency notes, no informal arrangement of any kind. This is the law.

Keep the bank records. When you sell one day, the record of how you paid decides how much of the money can leave India again.

Most of the process happens without you: the short list, the visits by someone you trust or by us on video, the negotiation, the paperwork. The agreement to sell is best signed while you are in Delhi; otherwise someone holding your power of attorney in Delhi signs it. Registration needs you in the room or a power of attorney.

A power of attorney is notarised and apostilled in the country where you sign it, then stamped in Delhi before use. It is not registered. The stamping in Delhi takes a few days.

The same as anyone else. Stamp duty in Delhi is 7% for a man and 5% for a woman on anything above ₹25 lakh: that is 3% or 2% stamp duty plus MCD transfer duty of 4% or 3%, raised by one point in 2022. Registration is 1%. Many websites still show the old 6% and 4%; our calculator uses the current figures. Our brokerage, if you buy through us, is 1.18% (1% plus GST).

If the seller lives in India, you hold back 1% of the price under section 393(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (earlier section 194-IA) and pay it to the government for the seller.

If the seller lives abroad, you hold back 12.5% plus surcharge plus cess (14.95% at these prices) on the whole price under section 393(2) (earlier section 195), unless the seller has a certificate under section 395(1) (Form 128, earlier Form 13) allowing a lower rate. You will need a TAN (a tax deduction account number) for this: the no-TAN relief from 1 October 2026 is only for a buyer who is a resident individual or HUF.

Your CA handles the deposit and the forms. We make sure it happens before registration, not after.

When you sell one day, the money you brought in from abroad can normally go back out, for up to two homes. Anything above that, the gain or a third home, goes out through your NRO account under the USD 1 million a year facility, with Forms 145 and 146 (earlier 15CA and 15CB). Your bank and CA confirm which route applies. The paperwork you keep today is what makes this easy then.

01 · What you actually want. A conversation about colony, floor, size, and what the home is for: living in it, family, or holding. We tell you what ₹10 crore and above buys in each colony today, from sold prices, not asking prices.

02 · A short list, not a long one. We show homes we have already checked: the chain of owners, the mutation, the building plan. In one real case, twenty-five homes were on offer and one was right.

03 · Checks before you commit. Ownership from the allotment to today, the approved plan, the Completion Certificate (CC), the land share and parking as written in the deed, and any loan on the home, all confirmed before the token moves.

04 · Negotiation and agreement. Ashutosh negotiates directly. The agreement to sell records the real price, the payment dates by bank, and the date for registration.

05 · Registration. In person, or through a power of attorney arranged in advance. Stamp duty, registration and the tax held back from the seller, all paid and filed before the sub-registrar. You get the registered deed and the complete file.