Yeah, lucky for us that we chose not to, because it would have meant lying about going in to business.

Some friends have 'bought' near Siolim, but have a Goan 'friend' to whom the property is registered.
They will never own it themselves, and if after the legal maximum 5-year lease expires, they cannot renew and/or get visa's etc, it will not have been a good investment. It would have been a lot cheaper and less hassle to have rented long-term.

Their 'friend' may end up being thousands of pounds richer and if anything were to happen to him, who is to say his family would not claim it as their own and refuse to 'lease' it to the real purchasers.
Very dodgy ground for PNIO.

goonerfan, I agreed with what you say, but then I went to read the early posts on the ex pats forum referring to this.
3-4 years ago it was nothing like as clear as your quote makes it sound.
Anyone starting into a purchase after early 2007 can't really expect much sympathy as it was becoming apparent from that time on there was a problem, which should have urged extreme caution
Reading the early posts on that thread did however make me realise just how naive some people are in terms of a large investment.

surely people read up on what was legal or not legal? If they've "bent" the rules to buy then they cant argue with the result.

I agree goonerfan, but many people paid lawyers to advise them and it would seem that not all lawyers are as familiar with FEMA as they should be. Also, it is now the Goans who have bent the rules by refusing to register properties where the purchase has been done legally. Some people who have registered their deeds are now prevented from selling, even if they wanted to, and even if the purchaser was an Indian national.

It seems that Goa is the only state changing laws regarding property purchase by foreigners, it doesn't seem to be such a hot potato elsewhere in India.

"surely people read up on what was legal or not legal? If they've "bent" the rules to buy then they cant argue with the result." Quote Gooner Fan.
The problem with Goa is, for every law, there seems to be a way around it. People who have visited regularly will have seen or heard of something which initially seemed to be impossible suddenly happening usually as a result of having enough money to throw at it. There is a palpable disrespect for most laws and rules, smoking, driving, and prescriptions spring to mind. Yes I guess you would need to be very naive to part with money for property , but, with a heady mix of sunshine, silly property prices and Honeybee it wouldn't have been impossible to have been 'sweet talked' into a 'Goan Friend' situation such as moles describes. (BTW moles, I hope it all works out with your friend, and I'm not suggesting lack of judgement on that specific purchase !) I'm sure there are other scenario's used to make a prospective buyer think that their purchase, whilst not 'legal' would be just too good a deal to pass up. The latest visa rules will surely put the final nail in that coffin - Unless of course, your Goan 'friend' agrees to marry you !!

well said Katie p yes the goan goverment are making there own rules we were one of them that bought back in 2005 it is a disgrace what they have done or are still doing to people all because the are not indian the way i see it is they want you there for 2 3 weeks charter spend your money and then out you go till the next plane load thank god we had the sense to get out now i feel sorry for the ones left behind i dont think we will return and that is not being bitter because it is not the poor locals fault there are some wonderful people in goa but as for the politions they are a disgrace imagine if we did that in theeuk there would be uproar it is beond belife that they are getting away with it goodby goa newer pastures await

dkj i dont think you seem to know very much about the situation of purchacing property in goa back in 2005 you were allowed to buy and to say peoples heads are full of sun honey bee and cheap property prices is very rude we were back in the uk for 6 mounths back in 2004 before we dicided to go back to the buider in 2005 and go ahead with buying so i think you need to do a little research into the situation before you make these kind of judgments on people

The problem is that people were told a pack of lies by Goan/Indian lawyers to get a sale.....and their greed doesn't stop there,now there are trying to buy some places back at a fraction of the price these people paid so they can be sold onto Indians to make even more money!
Whoever put their property in the name of a Goan should make an appointment with DASH.

well said spaldy

toe; Apologies to you if I didn't make in clear in my post that I was referring to property purchase in more recent years, when it became clear it was illegal for a non Indian person to purchase. I was attempting to respond to earlier posts which suggested in recent years, it was well known you couldn't purchase and couldn't expect much sympathy if you did. I take your point that the position surrounding the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999, was less clear in 2005, and lawyers were providing people with ways around the legislation

should make an appointment with DASH.

???
who or what is DASH?

???
who or what is DASH?
Dabolim Airport Snow Hawkers ?

Diabolical Airport Security Hogwash
scorpion.

Spaldy i could not have put it better, we were all advised by advocates and no where in FEMA does it say you should not buy on a tourist visa because back then you could do 183 days in any financial year so you did meet the criteria required.

Mike

Yes Mike lots of us had 5, 2 or 1 year visas which easily covered the 183 day rule and were also told you could do it on 2 - 6 month visas as long as they were in the same year. Lots of lies told by Lawyers - why would foreigners disbelieve a Lawyer over such a large purchase. Builders were as bad - all in colusion.

Spaldy - my DASH would be unprintable