The NRI’s Hyderabad checklist: what you can buy, what you cannot, and what to set up first
Rules, accounts, taxes and the one land category that is off-limits. Written for someone deciding from Dallas, Dubai or Sydney.
Indian property has become a more common conversation among NRIs than it was a few years ago — partly the currency, partly the growth story, and partly a wish for a foothold back home. Hyderabad specifically attracts a lot of that interest.
Before any of the interesting decisions, there is a short list of structural things to get right. Get these wrong and the rest does not matter.
This is general information, not advice
Foreign exchange rules, tax treatment and repatriation limits are specific to your residency status, your source of funds and your country of residence, and they change. Everything here should be confirmed with a chartered accountant who handles NRI matters and with your bank before you act. Where a rule is stated below, verify the current position rather than relying on this page.
1. What you can and cannot buy
The distinction that catches most people:
| Type | Generally permitted for NRIs? |
|---|---|
| Residential property | Yes |
| Commercial property | Yes |
| Agricultural land | No |
| Plantation property | No |
| Farmhouse | No |
There are limited exceptions — most commonly property that is inherited — and those have their own rules. The practical consequence is this: if a "farmland", "managed farm", "farm plot" or "farm commune" investment is being marketed to you as an NRI, stop and get the land's legal classification in writing before anything else. A great many products marketed with agricultural imagery are legally something else, and some are exactly what they appear to be and therefore not available to you. The seller is not the right person to settle that question — your own advocate is.
2. Set up the right account before you transact
Getting the account structure right up front is what makes selling and repatriating straightforward years later.
- NRE account — for foreign earnings brought into India. Principal and interest are generally freely repatriable, which matters enormously when you eventually sell.
- NRO account — for income arising in India, such as rent. Repatriation from it is subject to annual limits and documentation.
Buy through the correct account and keep clean records of the inward remittance. The paperwork you file today is what a bank will ask you for when you want to send sale proceeds out in ten years.
3. Understand the tax touchpoints
- On rental income: taxable in India, and tax is generally deducted at source. You will likely need to file an Indian return.
- On sale: capital gains apply, and the buyer is required to deduct TDS at rates specific to NRI sellers — typically higher than for resident sellers. This surprises people at exactly the wrong moment.
- Double taxation: India has treaties with most countries where NRIs live. Whether and how you can claim relief depends on your country. This is the single most valuable question to take to a CA before you buy, not after.
4. Get the Power of Attorney right
You will need someone to act for you in India. Two rules:
- Scope it narrowly. Name the specific property and the specific acts. A general PoA is a blank cheque.
- Give it to family, or to a professional you have engaged and who is accountable to you. Never to anyone with a financial interest in the transaction — not the broker, not the builder's representative, not the "family friend" introduced to you by the seller.
Execute it properly for use in India: typically signed before the Indian consulate in your country, or notarised and then apostilled and adjudicated in India. Your advocate will tell you which applies where you live.
5. Do the verification sequence, without exception
Everything in the property verification checklist applies to you twice over, because you are not there to notice what is wrong. In particular: check the TG-RERA registration on the official portal yourself, read the quarterly progress photographs, and pull the encumbrance certificate. All of it can be done from a laptop anywhere in the world.
6. Decide who is going to manage it
The part people plan last and regret first. An empty flat 8,000 km away needs someone to handle tenants, repairs, society dues, property tax and the occasional emergency. Decide before you buy whether that is a family member — and whether that is genuinely fair to them — or a paid property manager, and budget for it. An unmanaged property does not stay neutral; it deteriorates.
The order to do this in
- Talk to a CA about your specific tax position before you shortlist anything
- Open or confirm the right bank accounts
- Shortlist only property categories you are permitted to buy
- Run the full verification sequence on the specific project
- Execute a narrow PoA to someone genuinely on your side
- Arrange management before possession, not after
The thing worth saying plainly
The investment case for Indian property is a real one and there are good buys in this city. The losses that happen to NRIs are almost never because the market went against them. They happen because of a title problem nobody checked, a land classification nobody questioned, or a power of attorney given to the wrong person. Those are all preventable with a few weeks of unglamorous work at the start.
The land-category restriction and repatriation framework described here reflect widely published guidance on FEMA rules for NRI property purchase. Rules and limits change and vary by individual circumstance — confirm current terms with your bank and a qualified CA.
