Fiona - in reply to your artical - can I please point out the following - yes you are correct that you should not buy property in goa unlesss you can afford to loose it should government policy change (this also applies to anywhere outside of the uk)- the five year lease rule is as stated,but can be renewed every time it expires - also the ruling on purchase of property in Goa by freehold is correct under fema and a foreigner will have to be resident in goa to fulfill the conditions. Brian

I have just received a call from my friend who has asked me to post this to let people know what the current rules are. She travelled to London to obtain her visa and following a number of conversations she was given a 12 month tourist visa which meant she couldn't stay in Goa for over 180 days (had to visit another country and return)
She travelled to Goa 1st Sept to undertake her 6 month residency, and when she arrived she booked an appointment with the developer. She has been advised she cannot complete her residency on a tourist visa, and the visa authority advised she should not have been allowed to purchase a property on a tourist visa, talk about catch 22. This property was paid for in Nov 2003 and keys supplied Nov 2005.
Her opinion is we are better off than some as our property is complete, those whose properties have not been completed are in an even more costly positon.
She now has an apartment that the deeds cannot be transferred to her name as she can't do residency on a tourist visa and HCI will only give a tourist visa!!

Hi Taffy, has your friend applied for residency in Panjim, our friends who rent long term have residency, when they arrive they pop down to Panjim and sign in and sign out when they leave, I know about the 12mth. visa you have to leave after 6mths for 24hrs our friend does it every year (bit of a pain ) Paul.

The problem is they can't have the deeds of their property signed over to their name until they have completed 185 days residency in India and it appears this cannot be achieved on a a tourist visa. Propertys will not be signed over to non indian nationals, as it appears they should never have been sold to non indian nationals, or to persons holding a tourist visa.

However thank you for your comments I think if she was renting there wouldn't be a problem. Tthe problem is having the deeds of a property transferred to her name from the developer (until this is done you cannot sell etc) as it stands she has bought an apartment, had keys 12 months etc but now cannot own the deeds as these can only be transferred to an Indian National

http://www.indiamike.com/india/showthread.php?t=23522

Rules have been tightened up specifically to stop people buying on tourist visas. Before maybe a blind eye may have been turned, hence your friends current problem.

I have found this useful site(INVALID URL if you are looking for Furnishings and Furniture in Goa, we are going to have look around their store in Panjim for some ideas. Will post details after our visit in Feb. Does anyone else have any recommendations?

We bought a property last year on Chorao Island but we need to do our 180 days, we have just been over for a month and heard rumours that all this is about to change.

Does anyone have any info ?

I don't think the laws have changed but they are tightening up the existing ones. The India Mike website has a very long thread regarding foreign ownership of Indian properties which is worth a read.

I think the residency requirement is 183 days rather than 180 which means that you may need to renew your visa if you only have a 6 month tourist one.

Hi All

Has anyone bought an apartment on Keiran Park in Calangute? Ours is due to be finished in March and just thought if anyone else owns property there it would be nice to get in touch?

Thanks Jo

Hi Bam,

Thanks for all the information, you have certainly helped put my mind at ease. We are buying a property in South Goa off plan and like most others on this thread find it most annoying that our sellers etc never or at best rarely respond to our e-mails. Anyway that aside just one question please, you say that the money from a sale has to go into the sellers Indian bank account and can then be used as normal but can we transfer the money to our British account if and when we decide to sell . We have accounts with Bank of India Margao and ICICI Bank in Margao and a ICICI account in a Manchsetser Branch, England
Your advise would be gratefully recieved.

David

from my research 18 months ago - you can transfer what you invested but all profits have to stay in Goa. This may have changed but was one of the reasons why we did not invest in Goa.

http://www.homes4living.com/goa_overseas_property_exhibition.htm

Check it out.

Just back from Goa this week.

I was absolutey amazed at the number of people I met who have now bought apartments or houses in Goa.

What I would like to know is - how can they buy property, when the eligibility requirements are 183 days continuous residence in Goa?

How do they get round this with a 6 month visa?

I think that some people form companies and rent their property out as part of the business they have set up.

Also, I believe a lot of off plan properties are sold with renewable 5 year leases. By doing this the owners are able to use the property until such time as they can complete their residency period and register the property under their own name.

We have just bought in Candolim and are applying for PIO cards which should make us OK from a legal point of view.

I really think that people are being poorly advised and yet are swallowing everything that is said hook line and sinker!
most brits seem to be advised to set up a company and then purchase. Only a few locals and sellers are actually telling the truth and advising not to do this.
As far as we can gather - having experienced some of it - if you form a company and you own one property - by indian law - you cannot sell only one property and must have more than one in the company name before you can sell. This is to prevent a company being set up to buy and sell land/properties. A lot of people have bought only one property ie an apartment so what happens when they want to sell? theoretically they cannot unless they purchase another property via the company route.

There is a big issue about setting up the company on the tourist visa - in the monsoon the foreigners police department recalled over 470 foreign companies to determine all those set up on a company on a tourist visa. Apparently 'high up' nobody is willing to make any sort of ruling about this or any stand with elections due - yet its strange that the ROC in Panajim is still setting up companies with foreign Directors who hold a tourist visa.

there are lots of catches to having the indian company that are not being explained ie you have to register yourselves as directors - ie DIN numbers which cost, you need a company PAN card, you must have an encrypted digital signature, you must complete annual accounts to ensure you are paying the correct tax (which includes 35% on any profit made - also any rentals of your property should include local government and tourist taxes paid) etc etc . So when you are quoted an over inflated price to set up your company you should bear in mind all the extra costs in addition to this if you want to be legal.
Also many people are being advised to set up 1 lakh or 3 lakh companies - yet are purchasing 30-40 lakh apartments/houses etc. In order to create a 40 lakh company you need to pay the ROC (company house equivalent in Panijim) at least 86,000 inr plus your company set up costs (at least £1200) and then, in the future, anything that you have made above the 40lakhs will be taxed at 35% - although the rate differs the longer you keep the property. If you have only set up a 3 lakh company then you will be taxed on whatever you sell it for minus the 3 lakh's provided you have more than one property. None of this money can be repatriated due to the change in law within the last 12 months unless you repatriate within 6 months of buying. Even then we have met people who have bought in their money and then decided not to buy and are seriously struggling repatriating their money within the 6 months. Permission to repatriate is hard to get even within this time.
Is there going to be a crackdown soon on all these non-trading or theoretical companies as there are appently hundreds which are being investigated This is on top of ensuring that you have all the correct paperwork and permissions for the property you are buying (recently 50 lakh house was demolished which was owned by foreigners despite desperate pleading by them)

We don't know about the 183 days route and have only heard differing tales so if someone has managed to do it this way recently please let us know!

Sorry to be so long winded and doom and gloom but it really is amazing what people are falling for and we don't know the half of it. Don't just see a "sellers" recommended advocate - get your own for independent advice and don't bother paying a UK lawyer - people are paying vast sums to be referred to goan lawyers who do all the setting up for a fraction of the price quoted in the UK. please correct me for any errors in this - we really have learned by trial and error and want to help people.

Hello

We are looking to buy an apartment for our retirement and not as an investment. Is this impossible at this moment in time. We are looking to live there for the winter and return home in May. Before we retire which is quite a few years we want to be able to rent to cover our costs which will involve emloying a local to look after our interests. Does this make any difference to the rules.

Sorry to be so long winded and doom and gloom but it really is amazing what people are falling for

Thanks for the detailed answer - it's the most detailed answer I've had so far.

I still don't know exactly how it's done on a tourist visa - all I know is that I won't be doing it.

I think for now I'll carry on looking for a nice place to rent long term.

Zahara
I was fed lies by a company as well about the ease of buying property. I contacted the RBI and was told foreigners could not own property. I then went to an Indian lawyer for advice and he was adamant that foreigners could not own property. Even if you do manage to "own" property you will find it almost impossible to get any profits from the eventual sale of that property out of the country legally.YOu can only use the money to invest again in India.
I was told by another fairly well known property company that they did have property in Goa but would only sell it to companies or people with large portfolios who were willing to take the risk of losing it all.

Thinking of investing in one of these apartments, has anybody else looked at these and are apparently not far from baga beach.

The problem is it looks a minefield to buy in india and even thou property is fairly cheap is it worth it