Buying a home in India as a non-resident is legally straightforward and procedurally fiddly. The eligibility rules are broad and have been stable for years; what trips people up is the mechanics — which account the money leaves from, who deducts tax and at what rate, what a power of attorney must say and where it must be stamped, and what can be sent back out afterwards.

This page sets out the framework as we could verify it, with sources named, and is deliberately conservative. Cross-border property and tax rules interact with the law of your country of residence and with any tax treaty between it and India. Take advice from a chartered accountant and an advocate before you transact. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.

Who the Rules Apply To

Indian foreign exchange law distinguishes a Non-Resident Indian — an Indian citizen resident outside India — from an Overseas Citizen of India, a foreign national holding an OCI card. For the purpose of acquiring residential property, the two are treated substantially alike under the current framework. A foreign national who is neither, and who is not resident in India, is in a different and much more restricted position.

Residential status for foreign exchange purposes is determined under FEMA and is not the same test as residential status for income tax. You can be a resident for one and not the other in the same year. Establish both before you plan a transaction.

What You May and May Not Buy

An NRI or OCI may acquire immovable property in India other than agricultural land, a farm house or plantation property. Residential and commercial property is permitted without any RBI approval; the three excluded categories are prohibited outright, and no general permission exists to acquire them by purchase.

Other permitted routes include acquisition by gift from a person resident in India or from an NRI or OCI who is a relative as defined in the Companies Act, 2013, and acquisition by inheritance. A person resident outside India who is the spouse of an NRI or OCI may acquire one residential property jointly with that spouse, subject to conditions.

There is no cap on the number of residential or commercial properties an NRI or OCI may buy. There are limits on repatriation, which is a separate matter dealt with below and frequently confused with a limit on purchase.

How the Money Must Move

Payment must be made through normal banking channels — by inward remittance from abroad, or from funds held in an NRE, NRO or FCNR(B) account maintained with a bank in India. Payment cannot be made in foreign currency notes, by traveller's cheque, or from an account outside the permitted set.

Which account you pay from matters later. Broadly, funds brought in from abroad or routed through an NRE or FCNR(B) account are treated as foreign-exchange-sourced, and that source is what determines how freely the proceeds of an eventual sale can be sent back out. Rupee funds in an NRO account carry the tighter repatriation route. Keep the remittance advices, foreign inward remittance certificates and account statements for every payment. Years later, when you sell, your bank will ask you to evidence the original source of funds, and reconstructing it after the fact is painful.

TDS When You Buy

Tax deduction at source on a property purchase is an obligation of the buyer, not the seller, and it applies to you as much as to a resident buyer.

Buying from a resident seller

Where the seller is a resident and the consideration is ₹50 lakh or more, the buyer deducts 1% under Section 194-IA of the Income-tax Act and deposits it against the seller's PAN, filing the prescribed challan-cum-statement. On a purchase from a developer, this is the usual case. On a villa in the five-to-seven-crore band, 1% is a significant sum and must be deducted from the payment, not paid on top of it.

Buying from a non-resident seller

Where the seller is a non-resident, Section 194-IA does not apply and deduction is instead made under Section 195, at rates that depend on the nature of the gain rather than on a flat 1% of consideration. For property held more than 24 months, the long-term capital gains rate applicable to transfers on or after 23 July 2024 is 12.5% without indexation, with surcharge and cess on top. Deduction under Section 195 also requires the buyer to hold a TAN. A seller who expects the statutory deduction to exceed their actual liability can apply for a lower-deduction certificate under Form 13; as the buyer you should deduct at the certified rate only if you have seen the certificate.

Get this right. TDS failures are the buyer's problem, and they surface at the worst time — when you come to sell.

Power of Attorney

Most non-resident buyers cannot be present for every stage, and a power of attorney in favour of someone in India is the normal solution. Three practical points.

First, a POA executed abroad generally has to be notarised and then legalised for use in India — through apostille where the country is a party to the Hague Convention, or through consular attestation at an Indian mission where it is not. Second, it must then be stamped in India in accordance with the applicable stamp law, and there are time limits after it is received in India within which this must be done. Third, and most important, the scope of the POA must be drafted precisely for what you need — a specific power to execute and present a sale deed, take possession, and deal with a named property, rather than a broad general power.

Have the POA drafted in India by the advocate handling your purchase, and have the sub-registrar's office requirements confirmed in advance. Requirements vary and a defective POA is discovered at the registration counter.

Repatriation

Repatriation is where the rules bite, and it is worth understanding before you buy rather than after.

Sale proceeds of Indian property must first be credited to an NRO account; they cannot be sent abroad directly. From an NRO account, the RBI framework permits remittance of up to USD 1 million per financial year, aggregated across all NRO remittances in that year, after applicable taxes and subject to the prescribed certification. Where the property was originally acquired with foreign exchange remitted into India, a more favourable route exists for the proceeds of residential property, with a limit on the number of properties it covers.

The practical implications for a buyer at this price level are worth stating plainly. A single villa in the five-to-seven-crore band, sold in one transaction, may produce proceeds that exceed what can be remitted in a single financial year under the NRO route. Repatriation may therefore have to be staged across years. Anyone whose plan depends on getting the full proceeds out quickly should get that modelled by a chartered accountant before committing, not afterwards.

Home Loans and Rental Income

Indian banks and housing finance companies do lend to NRIs and OCIs for residential property, generally on shorter tenures and with additional documentation. Repayment must be through the permitted channels: inward remittance or debit to an NRE, NRO or FCNR(B) account.

Rental income from Indian property is taxable in India and is credited to an NRO account, from which it is repatriable within the same annual limit after tax.

If the Project Is Pre-Launch

One additional caution applies to a non-resident buyer considering a project that is not yet registered with the state regulator, as Nambiar Beverly Park currently is not. Enforcing rights from abroad is harder and slower than doing so from Bengaluru, and the regulator's registration is the mechanism that gives a buyer a defined counterparty, defined areas and defined timelines. Read our guide to what to check before buying a pre-launch project and the project's current K-RERA status before any money moves, and verify independently at rera.karnataka.gov.in.

For pricing and the cost stack, see the Nambiar Beverly Park price page. Other guides are indexed on the Nambiar Beverly Park blog.

General information only. Foreign exchange and tax rules change, and their application depends on your own circumstances and country of residence. Take professional advice.