Step-by-step: PAN, NRO/NRE, PoA, sale-deed, TDS on resale, and the smart way to remit funds home.
NRI 2026 Guide to Buying Property in India: FEMA, PoA & Repatriation
Step-by-step: PAN, NRO/NRE, PoA, sale-deed, TDS on resale, and the smart way to remit funds home.
Buying property in India as an NRI is straightforward once the paperwork order is right — PAN before account, account before payment, Power of Attorney before registration if you can't be present. Get that sequence wrong and a deal that should take weeks stretches into months. Here's the process in the order it actually happens, plus the one step people skip and regret: planning the exit before making the entry.
Start with a PAN card
A PAN (Permanent Account Number) is mandatory for any NRI or OCI buying property in India — you cannot register the property in your name, complete the payment, or file the tax paperwork on resale without one. If you don't already have one, apply early; it's the single most common bottleneck that delays a purchase, since everything downstream (the bank account, the sale deed, the TDS filing) references it.
Open the right account: NRO or NRE
FEMA doesn't allow NRIs to use a regular resident savings account for property transactions — you need an NRE, NRO, or FCNR(B) account, and which one matters more than most buyers realize:
An NRE account holds income earned abroad and remitted to India. Funds here are freely repatriable with no cap, which makes it the better choice if you're paying largely from foreign savings and want a clean exit later.
An NRO account holds income earned in India — rent, dividends, a maturing FD. It works for property payments too, but repatriation from an NRO account is capped at USD 1 million per financial year and requires more documentation.
Cash and traveller's cheques aren't accepted for property payments under FEMA — payment has to move through normal banking channels or one of these accounts. Note which account funded the purchase; it determines how freely you can bring the money back out later.
Power of Attorney, if you can't be there in person
Most NRI buyers can't fly in for every site visit, agreement signing, and registration appointment. A registered Power of Attorney (PoA), given to a trusted representative — a family member, or your advisor — lets that person sign on your behalf at each stage. Get the PoA drafted specifically for the transaction (not a generic all-purpose PoA), have it notarized or apostilled in your country of residence depending on treaty status with India, and register it with the relevant Indian authority before it's used. A PoA prepared after the deal is already moving is the single biggest cause of registration delays for NRI purchases.
Sale deed and registration
Once payment terms are agreed, the sale deed is drafted, stamp duty and registration fees are paid (rates vary by state, and a few states offer a rebate when the property is registered in a woman's name — worth checking if that applies to your purchase), and the deed is registered at the sub-registrar's office covering the property's location. Your PoA holder can complete this step on your behalf if you're not in India for it. Confirm the project's RERA registration and the seller's clear title before this stage — not after; our RERA checklist for Noida buyers covers exactly what to verify before you sign anything, and the same checks apply whether you're buying or reselling.
TDS if you're reselling
If you're an NRI selling property in India rather than buying, TDS is deducted at source on the full sale value by default — 30% plus surcharge and cess if you've held the property 24 months or less, or 12.5% plus surcharge and cess (without indexation) for property sold on or after July 23, 2024, if held longer than 24 months. That's on the entire sale value, not just the gain, unless you apply in advance for a Lower TDS Certificate from the Income Tax Department — which most sellers should do, since it can meaningfully reduce the amount withheld at the transaction itself rather than waiting to claim it back at filing.
The smart way to remit funds home
Sale proceeds land first in your NRO account — they can't be sent directly overseas or straight into an NRE account. From there, repatriation follows the source of the original purchase money: if the property was bought with foreign remittances or NRE funds, the full sale proceeds (after tax) can be repatriated with no annual cap. If it was bought with NRO funds, rental income, or other India-sourced money, repatriation is capped at USD 1 million per financial year. Either way, you'll need Forms 15CA and 15CB, certified by a chartered accountant, before the bank will process the transfer — build in 3–10 working days for this step rather than assuming it's instant.
The one habit that saves NRI buyers the most friction: decide which account is funding the purchase, and think through the eventual exit, before you sign anything — not after. If you're comparing specific projects for an NRI purchase, our M3M The Cullinan listing has current pricing and RERA status, and it's a good reference point for how we lay out the documentation on a live listing.
Talk to Rahul directly.
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