How to buy a home in India, step by step

Buying a home in India runs in a fixed order: fix a budget you can service, choose between under-construction and ready possession, check the builder's delivery record, verify the project's title and approvals, read the carpet area rather than the headline area, inspect the build, negotiate, sign a registered agreement, register the sale deed, and inspect again at handover.

How much home can I actually afford?

Start with the monthly outgo, not the property price. Lenders will often sanction more than is comfortable, because their test is whether you can pay, not whether you can still live. Work out what you can set aside every month without touching your emergency fund, work backwards to a loan amount, then add your down payment to get a price ceiling. Our EMI calculator does that either way round.

The number that catches first-time buyers is the money needed on top of the flat price. Stamp duty, registration, GST on an under-construction purchase, parking, clubhouse charges, the maintenance advance and the corpus fund sit outside the quoted price, and are almost always payable in cash rather than from the loan. We have worked through every one in what buying a home really costs.

Interest rates move, so do not plan around today's rate. Plan around a rate meaningfully higher than the one you are quoted and check the EMI still works. Floating-rate loans are linked to an external benchmark, and when that benchmark rises most lenders extend the tenure rather than raise the EMI, which quietly adds years of interest.

Should I buy under construction or ready to move?

This is the first real fork, and it is a trade between price and certainty. An under-construction flat is usually priced lower and is paid for in instalments as the building rises. A ready flat costs more and gives you a thing you can stand inside: the actual light in the living room, the actual noise from the road.

What matters most is not price but what happens if things go wrong. With a ready flat the construction risk has already been taken by someone else. With an under-construction flat you are lending the developer money against a promise, and if the project stalls you pay EMI on a disbursed loan while also paying rent. That double outgo, rather than the headline discount, decides the real cost.

Under construction versus ready to move: what actually differs

Factor	Under construction	Ready to move
Price	Usually lower, lowest at launch	Higher, because the risk is gone
Payment	Staged against construction milestones	Largely on registration
GST	Applies to an under-construction unit	Not charged on a completed unit holding its occupancy certificate
What you can inspect	A show flat, a sample, drawings	The actual flat, light, ventilation, finish
Delay risk	Carried by you; RERA gives a remedy, not time back	None
Rent while waiting	Paid alongside part EMI	Stops at possession
Choice of unit	Wide: floor, facing, tower	Whatever is unsold
Neighbours, common areas	Unknown, promised in a brochure	Visible, built or visibly not built

A new launch sits at the far end of that scale: lowest price, longest wait, least to inspect. A resale flat in a completed society sits at the other end and brings its own work, because you inherit one owner's paperwork rather than a developer's standard set. For a resale, ask for the chain of title, the society's no-dues certificate and proof that tax and maintenance are paid up. On whether to wait for prices to fall: nobody reliably times a property market, and waiting costs rent.

How do I check whether a builder can be trusted?

The developer's record is the part of the purchase you can research most cheaply and most people skip. Start with delivery history rather than brand. Ask for a list of completed projects, then go and look at two that were handed over three to five years ago. A building at that age tells the truth about the construction: seepage on external walls, cracked plaster at junctions, lifts already replaced, a clubhouse promised and never finished.

Talk to residents, not the sales office. Ask three things: how late was handover against what the agreement said, what differed between the sample flat and the delivered flat, and how long the developer stayed engaged after possession. The third matters most, because handover of common areas and formation of the owners' association is where many otherwise decent projects go sour.

Then check the formal record. The state RERA portal lists a registered project's promoter, declared completion date, approvals and quarterly progress updates, and it lists complaints and orders against the promoter. That complaint record is the most honest thing you will read about any developer. Our RERA lookup points you at the right state portal, and the RERA guide explains each field. Ask too how many units are sold: a project funded largely by customer advances, selling slowly, is more exposed to a stall.

Which approvals and documents should I verify?

Verification runs in two halves. The first is the land: does the developer have the right to sell this, free of claims. The second is the building: is it permitted, and is the permission for what is actually being built.

For the land, work back through the chain of ownership. The mother deed, or parent document, is the earliest document in the chain, and later deeds should trace cleanly from it with no unexplained gap. An encumbrance certificate, obtained from the sub-registrar for a stated period, lists registered transactions on the property, which is how you find a mortgage nobody mentioned. In Karnataka, the khata records the municipal entry for property tax, and its category affects both tax and loan eligibility. Land records for most states are online, and our state-by-state guide shows where to look.

For the building, the commencement certificate shows construction was permitted to start, the sanctioned plan shows what was permitted, and the occupancy certificate shows the completed building may lawfully be occupied. Compare the sanctioned plan with what is standing. An extra floor, a tower closer to the boundary than the plan shows, or a clubhouse on land marked as open space are deviations, and deviations are the usual reason an occupancy certificate is delayed or refused.

Documents to collect at each stage, and who gives them to you

Stage	What to collect	Source	What it tells you
Shortlisting	RERA registration number and project page	State RERA portal	The project is registered; declared completion date
Before paying	Title deed and the chain of earlier deeds	Developer, read by your lawyer	Whether the seller can sell
Before paying	Mother deed or parent document	Developer or sub-registrar	Origin of the title chain
Before paying	Encumbrance certificate	Sub-registrar	Registered mortgages and charges
Before paying	Sanctioned plan and commencement certificate	Developer, cross-checked with the authority	What was permitted to be built
Booking	Allotment letter: unit, carpet area, full price	Developer	What you have actually booked
Agreement	Registered agreement for sale, payment schedule, possession date	Sub-registrar	Your enforceable rights
Before final payment	Occupancy certificate	Local authority, via the developer	The building may lawfully be occupied
Registration	Registered sale deed and duty receipts	Sub-registrar	Title has transferred to you
Handover	Possession letter, snag list, warranties	Developer and utilities	The flat and its services are yours

Have a property lawyer read the title, and pay for it. The lawyer is looking for what you are not trained to see: an unreleased mortgage, agricultural land never properly converted, a family member whose consent was required and not taken. A lender's legal opinion protects the lender's security, not your possession. Our documents checklist lists the full set.

What does carpet area mean, and how do I read the loading?

Three area figures circulate and only one is the floor you can walk on. Carpet area is the net usable floor area of the flat. Section 2(k) of RERA defines it as excluding the area covered by external walls, areas under service shafts, exclusive balcony and exclusive open terrace, while including internal partition walls. Built-up area adds the thickness of the external walls and, as commonly quoted, the balcony. Super built-up area adds your share of lobbies, staircases, lift wells, corridors and often the clubhouse.

RERA requires sale and advertising on carpet area, and most price sheets now show it. Many still quote the rate per square foot on super built-up area, which is why two quotes can look comparable and not be. The gap between the two is the loading.

Worked example: two flats with identical carpet area. Figures are illustrative, not market prices.

Figure	Flat A	Flat B
Carpet area	1,000 sq ft	1,000 sq ft
Built-up area	1,180 sq ft	1,150 sq ft
Super built-up area, the area charged	1,450 sq ft	1,320 sq ft
Loading on carpet area	45.0 per cent	32.0 per cent
Loading on built-up area	22.9 per cent	14.8 per cent
Quoted rate on super built-up	Rs 6,000 per sq ft	Rs 6,400 per sq ft
Base price	Rs 87,00,000	Rs 84,48,000
Effective rate per sq ft of carpet	Rs 8,700	Rs 8,448

Flat A looks cheaper and is not. Its headline rate is four hundred rupees lower, but it loads forty-five per cent onto the carpet area against Flat B's thirty-two, so you pay more for less usable space. The sum is simple: loading on carpet equals super built-up minus carpet, divided by carpet. Builders compute it on different bases, so ask which base a quoted percentage uses, or do the division yourself.

High loading is not automatically bad. A project with wide corridors, a real clubhouse and two staircases per core loads more than a bare-bones building, and you may want those things. What is bad is paying for it without knowing. Get the carpet area written into the allotment letter and the agreement.

What are FAR and FSI, and how do I read a project's density?

Floor area ratio and floor space index are two names for the same regulatory idea: how much floor may be built on a plot, expressed as a multiple of the plot area. A plot of 1,000 square metres with a permitted ratio of 2.0 may carry 2,000 square metres of built floor. It is set by the local development authority through the master plan and building rules, and varies by city, by zone and often by the width of the abutting road. Some states regulate mainly through height, setbacks and open space rather than a hard cap, so do not assume a national number.

FAR and FSI: the terms, and what to ask for

Term	What it measures	Who sets it	What to ask the developer
FAR or FSI	Permitted built floor area as a multiple of plot area	Local development authority, via master plan and building rules	The permitted ratio for this plot and the ratio actually consumed
Ground coverage	Share of the plot the building may sit on at ground level	Building rules	How much open ground is left between towers
Setback	Minimum distance from the plot boundary	Building rules, often tied to height	Distance between your tower and the next
Premium or purchasable FSI	Extra ratio bought from the authority where rules allow	State or city policy	Whether it was used, paid for and approved
Density	Dwelling units per unit of land	Master plan, in some cities	Total units on the parcel

You can sanity-check a project's claims with this. Take the land area from the RERA page, convert it to the unit the permitted ratio uses, and multiply. One acre is 4,046.86 square metres, so a two-acre parcel is about 8,094 square metres. At a permitted ratio of 3.0 that parcel supports roughly 24,280 square metres of built floor, and if an average unit is about 110 square metres of built-up area you arrive near 220 flats. Treat that as a ceiling, not a forecast, because common areas and services consume part of the permitted floor. A brochure number far above your ceiling means the land area, the ratio or the unit count is wrong.

How do I judge construction quality?

You will not get a structural audit, but you can check a great deal yourself, and the principle is that finish hides defects while water finds them. In a ready flat, carry a measuring tape, a level app, a torch and a marble. Roll the marble to find a slope. Shine the torch along a wall at a shallow angle to see the undulations the paint hides. Tap the tiles and listen for the hollow note that means poor bedding. Run every tap and shower together, and pour a bucket on the bathroom floor to see whether the water reaches the drain. Latch and lock every door and window. Count the electrical points against the agreement. Inspect the corners where external walls meet the ceiling, ideally after rain, where stains and salt deposits give seepage away. Then walk the lobby, staircase, basement and terrace.

In an under-construction project, ask to see the structure before the plaster goes on, because that is the only time the real work is visible. Ask which grade of concrete and reinforcement steel the structural design calls for, ask for the concrete cube test reports, and ask whether the building is designed for its seismic zone. A clean site, where materials are stacked and covered and workers wear harnesses, usually means real supervision.

Mivan versus conventional RCC, honestly

Conventional reinforced cement concrete construction puts up a frame of columns and beams, fills the walls with blocks or bricks, then plasters them. Aluminium formwork construction, which most Indian buyers know by the brand name Mivan, casts the walls and slab together as a single concrete shell using reusable moulds. The walls themselves are structural, with no separate block wall and no thick plaster.

The advantages are real. Cycle times are much shorter because one mould set is reused floor after floor. Surfaces come off the mould flat and true, so you see fewer undulating walls, and there are fewer joints between dissimilar materials, which is where water usually gets in.

The trade-offs are equally real and sales teams rarely raise them. Because the walls are structural concrete, you cannot casually knock one through later to merge two rooms, and cutting new chases for wiring or plumbing into a cast wall is restricted and sometimes not permitted at all. Everything has to be planned before the pour: conduits, boxes, sleeves, every socket. Thin concrete walls also behave differently from a cavity block wall in heat and in sound, so ask what the external wall build-up is. And the system only pays for repeating floor plates, which is why such towers often offer less layout variety. Neither method is better in the abstract: a well-supervised conventional building beats a badly supervised formwork one.

Is a green rated building worth paying for?

Green certification is awarded by rating bodies rather than by government. IGBC ratings are run by the Indian Green Building Council, part of the Confederation of Indian Industry. LEED is run by the US Green Building Council. GRIHA is the Indian system developed by TERI. Each assesses a building against credits across water, energy, materials, waste and indoor air, and awards a level based on the credits achieved.

Treat it as a cost and comfort question rather than a badge. A rating tells you the project pursued credits; it does not tell you which, and the ones that matter to you are specific. Dual plumbing with a working sewage treatment plant, its treated water reused for flushing and landscaping, cuts the society's water bill every month. Shaded west-facing glazing and better glass reduce what you spend on cooling. Rooftop solar on the common supply reduces the maintenance charge. A rainwater system actually connected to a recharge pit, not just a pipe into a tank, affects the borewell.

Ask whether the certification covers the design or the completed building, because some ratings are awarded at design stage. Ask also whether the running cost is budgeted: a treatment plant the association cannot afford to run gets switched off in year three, and you paid for it twice.

How do I negotiate the price?

Negotiation here is less about the headline rate than about everything attached to it. Developers defend the rate per square foot because it sets the benchmark for the rest of the inventory, but they have real flexibility on floor rise, preferential location charges, parking, the clubhouse charge and the first-year maintenance advance. Ask for the itemised sheet and negotiate line by line. A waived floor rise and a free parking slot are usually worth more than a small cut in the base rate, and are given up more readily.

Your leverage comes from three things. Information: what comparable flats in the same micro-market actually transacted at, which registered transaction data tells you and asking prices do not. Timing: quarter ends matter, and so does a tower that is nearly sold out or barely selling. Readiness: a buyer with a loan pre-approved is worth a discount to a sales team carrying a monthly target.

Negotiate the payment schedule as well as the price. A construction-linked plan that genuinely tracks milestones protects you better than one front-loading payments into the first few months. And get every concession written into the allotment letter and then into the agreement. A verbal promise has no value once the salesperson changes jobs.

What happens at booking and at the agreement stage?

Booking is where most of the avoidable damage is done, because it happens fast and under pressure. Before you pay a token, get the unit number, the carpet area, the full itemised price, the payment schedule, the possession date and the refund terms in writing, including what happens to your money if your loan is not sanctioned. A receipt saying booking amount against a project name is not a record of what you bought.

The agreement for sale creates your enforceable rights, and it should be registered. Read it yourself, slowly, and have your lawyer read it. Look hardest at the possession date and what counts as an excuse for missing it, the compensation payable if the developer is late set against the interest you pay if you are late, and whether the flat described matches the carpet area you were shown. Specifications should be a schedule listing brand or grade for flooring, sanitaryware, wiring and fittings, with substitution limited to equivalent quality.

How does registration work?

Registration of a sale deed is compulsory under the Registration Act 1908, and an unregistered sale deed does not transfer title to you. The deed is executed, stamp duty is paid at the rate your state prescribes, the registration fee is paid, and the parties appear before the sub-registrar in whose jurisdiction the property lies, with witnesses and identification. Most states now run an online appointment and valuation system.

Two things catch buyers out. Stamp duty is charged on the higher of the consideration and the state's own guidance or circle rate, so a price below the guidance value does not reduce the duty. And rates, concessions and the registration fee are state matters that change, with several states charging a lower rate where the buyer is a woman. Check the current figure on our stamp duty page and confirm it with the state registration department before you transfer funds. Our registration checklist lists what to carry on the day.

Three deeds get confused. A sale deed transfers ownership of a specific property from seller to buyer and is what you register when you buy. A conveyance deed is the broader category of document conveying an interest in property, and in an apartment project the term usually means the deed by which the developer conveys the land and common areas to the owners' association. The mother deed is the oldest document in the chain of title. Conveyance of the common areas is often left undone for years; ask about it, because it decides who controls the terrace, the basement and the open land.

What should I check at handover and possession?

Do not take the keys and sign the possession letter on the same visit. Ask for a joint inspection first, with someone from the developer's engineering team present, and prepare a written snag list. Measure the carpet area against the figure in the agreement. Count the points and fittings against the specification schedule. Walk the common areas and check that what was promised has been built, not just started.

Then check the paperwork. You want the occupancy certificate, without which the building should not be occupied; the possession letter; the completion certificate where your state issues one; warranties for lifts, pumps and waterproofing; the as-built drawings for the flat's plumbing and electrical runs, which you will want the first time something leaks; and the final no-dues statement. Get the utility connections transferred into your name and confirm the property tax record has been updated.

Ask how the owners' association will be formed and when the developer will hand over the common areas, the corpus fund and the accounts. Under RERA the promoter has obligations on forming the association and on remedying structural defects reported within the statutory period after possession, so note the possession date carefully and report defects in writing rather than by phone.

What mistakes do first-time buyers make?

The same handful, repeatedly. Budgeting against the base price and then finding the real cost is meaningfully higher once duty, GST, parking and the maintenance advance arrive. Comparing two flats on the quoted rate per square foot without working out the loading, and so buying the more expensive one. Paying a token before anyone has read the title. Accepting a brochure or a show flat as the specification, when only the schedule in the agreement binds anybody. Signing an agreement with a soft possession date and a long list of excuses attached.

Two more are quieter and more costly. Stretching the loan to the limit the lender allows, so that a job change or a rate cycle turns a home into a problem. And buying for a projected return in a location you would not live in, which is a long and illiquid mistake.

Keep your own file: every receipt, the allotment letter, the registered agreement, the approval copies, the snag list and the possession letter. Buyers who win RERA complaints are almost always the ones who can produce a dated paper trail. Buyers who lose are often the ones who were told something true, and were told it verbally.