Citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China (including Macau & Hongcong), Iran, Nepal or Bhutan can’t acquire/transfer Immovable property in India without prior permission of RBI

RBI/2014–15/495 A.P.(DIR Series) Cir­cu­lar No.83

March 11, 2015

Acquisition/transfer of immov­able prop­er­ty – Pro­hi­bi­tion on cit­i­zens of cer­tain countries

Atten­tion of Autho­rised Deal­ers in For­eign Exchange is invit­ed to Reg­u­la­tion 7 of For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment (Acqui­si­tion and Trans­fer of immov­able prop­er­ty in India) Reg­u­la­tions, 2000 noti­fied vide Noti­fi­ca­tion No. FEMA 21/2000-RB dat­ed 3rd May 2000 in terms of which no per­son being a cit­i­zen of Pak­istan, Bangladesh, Sri Lan­ka, Afghanistan, Chi­na, Iran, Nepal or Bhutan with­out pri­or per­mis­sion of the Reserve Bank shall acquire or trans­fer immov­able prop­er­ty in India, oth­er than lease, not exceed­ing five years.

2. It has been observed that Macau and Hong Kong are the two Spe­cial Admin­is­tra­tive Regions of Chi­na. As they are noti­fied sep­a­rate­ly, it has been decid­ed, in con­sul­ta­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of India, that cit­i­zens of Macau and Hong Kong will also be includ­ed in the list of coun­tries which are pro­hib­it­ed to acquire/transfer immov­able prop­er­ty in India in terms of Reg­u­la­tion 7 of FEMA ibid.

3. Reserve Bank has since amend­ed the Prin­ci­pal Reg­u­la­tions through the For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment (Acqui­si­tion and Trans­fer of immov­able prop­er­ty in India) (Amend­ment) Reg­u­la­tions, 2015 noti­fied vide Noti­fi­ca­tion No. FEMA.335/2015-RB dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 4, 2015 c.f. G.S.R. No.120 (E) dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2015.

4. Autho­rised Deal­ers may bring the con­tents of this cir­cu­lar to the notice of their con­stituents concerned.

5. The direc­tions con­tained in this cir­cu­lar have been issued under Sec­tion 10(4) and 11(1) of the For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment Act (FEMA), 1999 (42 of 1999) and are with­out prej­u­dice to permissions/approvals, if any, required under any oth­er law.

Yours faith­ful­ly

(B. P. Kanungo)
Prin­ci­pal Chief Gen­er­al Manager