Plotted Developments Near Nashik: What to Check Before You Buy

Start with the land use

A plot is only as good as the land record under it. Read the 7/12 extract for the survey number before anything else. If the land is still recorded as agricultural, no house can lawfully be built on it until it is converted to non-agricultural use, and the conversion order should be in the developer's file.

Around Nashik this matters more than usual. Much of the land on the city's edge and in the vineyard belt is still agricultural on paper. An NRI cannot buy agricultural land at all without RBI approval, according to RBI's FAQ on property purchases.

Then the layout approval

Ask for the approved layout plan from the planning authority, showing your plot number, its area, the internal roads and the open spaces. Compare it with what is marked on the ground. A plot that is not on the approved layout, or whose road is on someone else's land, is a problem you will own.

A layout is a real estate project

A plotted development needs MahaRERA registration before plots are sold, unless its land is 500 square metres or less or it has eight plots or fewer. Search it on maharera.maharashtra.gov.in, the only official site. The project page shows the declared completion date for roads, drainage and water, and the promoter's declaration that the land is free of encumbrances or a list of each one.

The promoter cannot take more than 10% of the cost before a registered agreement for sale, and must keep 70% of buyers' money in a separate account used for the project's development and land cost.

Title

Have an advocate trace the land's title through every earlier deed, search the sub-registrar's index for mortgages, read the mutation entries on the land record, and search eCourts for disputes over the survey number. Land assembled from several farmers carries several titles, and each one needs checking. Ask for the advocate's fee in writing first.

The costs

Stamp duty on a plot follows the same rates as a flat. Inside a municipal corporation the base duty is 5% under the Stamp Act, plus surcharges that take most Nashik city purchases to 6% or 7%. In a gram panchayat area it is 4%. Registration is about 1%, capped at Rs 30,000.

On a Rs 25 lakh plot that is Rs 1.25 lakh at the 5% base rate or Rs 1 lakh at 4%, before surcharges and registration. Ask the sub-registrar for the exact rate on the survey number.

Returns

No reliable published figures exist for plot appreciation or rent around Nashik. A plot earns nothing while it is empty, and you carry its property tax and upkeep. Judge a price from registered sale deeds in the same layout, pulled from the sub-registrar's index, and plan your exit: who would buy the plot from you, and why.

JebuK Properties, MahaRERA agent registration A031222602911, checks RERA status and shortlists properties with buyers at no charge.