How NRIs Can Buy Property in Mumbai - A Complete 2026 Guide

Yes. An NRI or OCI can buy residential and commercial property anywhere in India, including Mumbai, without RBI approval and without any cap on how many units. The only properties off-limits are agricultural land, farmhouses and plantations, and those can still be inherited or gifted. Everything else, the money, the paperwork, the loan, and eventually the sale, has its own rules, and this guide covers them in the order they actually come up.

What you can, and can't buy

Under FEMA (the Foreign Exchange Management Act), NRIs and OCIs are treated almost identically to resident Indian buyers for residential and commercial real estate. No RBI approval is needed, and there's no ceiling on the number of properties you can hold.

• Allowed: apartments, independent houses, villas, office space, retail units - the entire residential and commercial portfolio a project like Chandak's is built on
• Not allowed by direct purchase: agricultural land, farmhouses, plantation property - though these can still pass to you by inheritance or as a gift from a resident Indian relative

How the money has to move

This is the part that trips up first-time NRI buyers most often; not because it's complicated, but because it's stricter than they expect. Every rupee has to arrive through a banking channel. Foreign currency cash, hand-carried or wired informally, isn't a valid route for a property purchase, full stop.

• An NRE account - foreign earnings converted to rupees, fully repatriable later without restriction
• An NRO account - income sourced in India (rent, dividends, and similar), repatriable up to USD 1 million per financial year, and only after the applicable taxes are cleared
• An NRI home loan - Indian banks typically finance 75-90% of the property's value, with the remaining amount required from your own NRE or NRO funds

Financing it from outside India

NRI home loans work broadly like resident home loans, with a few extra documentation steps; a valid passport and visa/OCI card, overseas employment or income proof, and often a Power of Attorney for someone in India to complete formalities on your behalf. As of September 2026, home loan pricing at HDFC Bank is repo-linked and starts from 7.75% p.a. (Policy Repo Rate of 5.25% plus a spread of 2.50–7.95%, depending on the applicant's profile) - this is the general published benchmark, and NRI-specific terms should still be confirmed directly with the bank, since exact eligibility and pricing depend on your income geography and employer.

The Power of Attorney question

If you can't be in Mumbai for every signature, a Power of Attorney lets someone you trust act on your behalf; but the kind of PoA matters. A Specific Power of Attorney, scoped narrowly to the exact transaction, is the safer instrument; a broad General Power of Attorney hands over far more authority than most buyers realise, for far longer than the deal actually takes. Have this drafted by a lawyer who names the transaction, not just the property.

NRI or OCI - does it change the rules?

Not materially, for property. An NRI is an Indian citizen currently residing abroad; an OCI is a person of Indian origin who holds foreign citizenship along with an Overseas Citizen of India card. FEMA treats both groups almost identically for residential and commercial real estate purchases - the same permitted property types, the same NRE/NRO banking requirement, the same absence of an RBI approval step. Where the two can differ is in banking and tax documentation specific to your country of citizenship, which is worth confirming with your bank at the account-opening stage rather than assuming it's identical to an NRI's paperwork.

The document checklist

Before a purchase can be registered, expect to need each of the following; gathering them early is the single biggest time-saver in an NRI transaction, since courier and attestation delays are the most common cause of a slipped closing date.

• A valid passport and visa, OCI card, or PIO card as applicable
• PAN (Permanent Account Number) - mandatory for property registration and for any tax filing tied to the purchase or a future sale
• Proof of overseas address and, for a financed purchase, overseas income or employment documentation
• A Power of Attorney, if you won't be present in Mumbai for registration - specific to this transaction, as covered above
• NRE/NRO bank account details, since payment has to be traceable to one of these

Why Mumbai, specifically, and why now

NRI interest in Indian real estate has grown steadily enough that it now sits as its own tracked search category - a sign this is a mainstream financial decision, not a niche one. Within Mumbai, the more interesting story isn't South Mumbai's already-priced-in addresses; it's the city's second-tier micro-markets. Borivali East, for instance, has posted 7.13% year-on-year price growth against a citywide picture that's far more mixed elsewhere; the kind of number that matters to an NRI buyer weighing India property against options in the country they're currently based in.

What it costs to sell later

Worth knowing before you buy, not after: when an NRI sells property in India, TDS is deducted at source - 30% (plus applicable surcharge and cess) on short-term gains if you sell within 24 months, and 20% (plus surcharge and cess) on long-term capital gains after that. Sale proceeds from an NRE-funded purchase are repatriable without restriction on the principal; proceeds from an NRO-funded purchase are capped at USD 1 million per financial year and require tax clearance first.

If you're buying to rent it out

A meaningful share of NRI purchases in Mumbai are investment-first - bought to rent out until the owner returns, or indefinitely. Rental income earned by an NRI landlord is taxable in India, and tenants (or their managing agent) are generally required to deduct TDS on rent paid to an NRI landlord, at a materially higher rate than for a resident landlord. The exact rate and any DTAA-based relief depend on your country of tax residence, so this is another item to confirm with your CA before you sign a lease - not after the first rent cheque arrives. Practically, most NRI owners appoint a local property manager or a trusted family member to handle tenant relations and rent collection, since chasing a delayed payment from a different time zone is its own kind of difficult.

Where to start

Chandak Group's NRI Corner exists for exactly this process - remote-friendly documentation, a single point of contact who understands PoA and NRE/NRO logistics, and project options across Mumbai's active micro-markets, from Andheri East to the newer growth corridors in Borivali East and Chembur East.

Frequently asked