Mohali Home Sale Money Goes Abroad Freely For 2 Homes Only मोहाली घर की बिक्री की रकम केवल 2 घरों के लिए खुलकर विदेश जा सकती है ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਘਰ ਦੀ ਵਿਕਰੀ ਦੀ ਰਕਮ ਸਿਰਫ਼ 2 ਘਰਾਂ ਲਈ ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹ ਕੇ ਵਿਦੇਸ਼ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ

A Mohali flat or plot sold by an owner who lives abroad raises a question a resident seller never faces. The sale deed is registered in India. The price arrives in rupees. Whether that money can leave India on a special remittance route, and for how many homes that route is open, is fixed by foreign exchange rules that apply only because the seller lives outside India.

This piece stays on one narrow point. The Reserve Bank of India's frequently asked questions on the purchase of immovable property set out, in Part II question seven clause c, when an NRI or a PIO may remit the sale proceeds of immovable property other than agricultural land or a farm house or plantation property. The same conditions appear in rule twenty nine of the Foreign Exchange Management Non-debt Instruments Rules of two thousand and nineteen. For residential property, both texts restrict that remittance to not more than two such properties. The wider yearly ceiling on money leaving an NRO account, and the tax declaration forms that sit before a bank remittance, are covered in our earlier piece on taking Mohali sale money abroad. This piece does not retell those forms.

What the Reserve Bank's answer says

The Reserve Bank's frequently asked question on this point, updated on the sixth of April twenty twenty three, asks whether a non-resident can repatriate the sale proceeds of immovable property in India. Clause c of the published answer is quoted here in full.

"NRIs/ PIOs can remit the sale proceeds of immovable property (other than agricultural land/ farm house/ plantation property) in India subject to the following conditions:

i. The immovable property was acquired in accordance with the provisions of the foreign exchange law in force at the time of acquisition or the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instrument) Rules, 2019.;

ii. The amount for acquisition of the property was paid in foreign exchange received through banking channels or out of the funds held in foreign currency non-resident account or out of the funds held in non-resident external account;

iii. In the case of residential property, the repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two such properties."

Those three conditions are the whole of clause c. The rest of this piece unpacks each of them against a Mohali sale, without adding terms the answer does not contain.

What rule twenty nine says

Rule twenty nine of the Non-debt Instruments Rules is headed "Repatriation of sale proceeds". Sub-rule two covers a sale by an NRI or an OCI of immovable property other than agricultural land or a farm house or plantation property. The authorised dealer may allow repatriation of the sale proceeds outside India when the conditions in that sub-rule are met. The operative conditions are quoted here from the rules.

"(a) the immovable property was acquired by the seller in accordance with the provisions of the foreign exchange law in force at the time of acquisition or the provisions of these rules;

(b) the amount for acquisition of the immovable property was paid in foreign exchange received through banking channels or out of funds held in Foreign Currency Non-Resident Account or out of funds held in Non-Resident External Account;

(c) in the case of residential property, the repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two such properties."

The Reserve Bank's answer and the rule use the same three conditions. The FAQ speaks of NRIs and PIOs. The rule speaks of an NRI or an OCI. Neither text invents a further residential-property test beyond the two-property limit.

Why the purchase money had to come from abroad

The second condition in the FAQ, and the matching condition in the rule, both require that the amount used to buy the property was paid in foreign exchange received through banking channels, or out of funds held in a foreign currency non-resident account, or out of funds held in a non-resident external account. A Mohali flat bought years earlier with rupee savings in a resident account, before the owner moved abroad, does not meet that wording. A flat paid for from an NRE account, or from an FCNR account, or by an inward remittance through banking channels, is the kind of purchase the texts describe.

The rule and the FAQ do not themselves say what happens to any surplus above the original foreign exchange amount. Older Reserve Bank circulars on remittance facilities have treated that surplus as money that goes to the NRO account and then under the yearly ceiling. That wider ceiling is the subject of the earlier piece linked above. This piece stays on the special remittance route and on the two-property residential limit.

Lawful acquisition under the foreign exchange rules

The first condition in the FAQ, and the matching condition in the rule, require that the property was acquired in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time, or under the Non-debt Instruments Rules. Rule twenty four of those rules is the main route by which an NRI or an OCI may buy immovable property in India other than agricultural land or a farm house or plantation property. A Mohali residential flat or plot bought under that route, and paid for in the modes the remittance texts name, is the kind of acquisition those conditions point to. This piece does not restate every clause of rule twenty four. It only records that lawful acquisition is a stated condition of the remittance route.

Why only two residential properties qualify

The third condition in the FAQ, and the matching condition in the rule, both say that in the case of residential property the repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two such properties. The texts do not say the seller may use the route for a third home. They do not say how a later purchase after an earlier remittance is counted. They do not define residential property beyond the ordinary sense of the phrase. The limit is stated once in those words and left there.

The same texts exclude agricultural land, and a farm house, and plantation property, from this remittance route altogether. A sale of farmland on the edge of the Aerotropolis does not sit inside clause c or sub-rule two. Those exclusions are separate from the two-property residential limit. A commercial shop that is not farmland still has to meet the lawful-acquisition and foreign-exchange-payment conditions, even though it sits outside the residential limit's wording.

What this route does not decide

Neither the FAQ nor rule twenty nine says how a Mohali bank branch counts the two properties. They are silent on what proof of the original foreign exchange payment the authorised dealer works from. They do not set capital gains tax. They do not replace the tax declaration that sits before a remittance, which the earlier piece on this site covers. They do not replace GMADA's own transfer conditions where the property is a GMADA site.

Rule twenty nine sub-rule one deals with a different case: a person who holds Indian property under section six sub-section five of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, or that person's successor. That person cannot repatriate the sale proceeds without Reserve Bank permission. That case is outside the two-property residential route this piece describes.

The FAQ's clause b points to a separate yearly remittance facility under the Remittance of Assets regulations. That facility, including the yearly United States dollar one million ceiling for NRO balances and sale proceeds, is the background route for money that does not qualify under clause c. The Reserve Bank's Master Direction on Remittance of Assets, updated on the twenty ninth of June twenty twenty six, restates that ceiling. That ceiling is left to the earlier piece.

How this fits a Mohali sale from abroad

An owner in Toronto or London or California who sells a Mohali residential flat that was bought with money from an NRE account, or from an FCNR account, or by an inward remittance, may ask the authorised dealer to remit the sale proceeds under the conditions in the FAQ and in rule twenty nine. The property has to have been acquired lawfully under the foreign exchange rules. The purchase price has to have moved through the foreign exchange modes those texts name. For residential property, that remittance route is open for not more than two such properties. A third residential sale does not meet the wording of the limit. Sale money that never qualified for this route, or that sits above what the route covers, is the money that goes through the NRO ceiling described in the earlier piece.

None of those points is a step-by-step remittance guide. They are a reading of the Reserve Bank's published answer and of rule twenty nine.

Related reading

- Taking Mohali sale money abroad: how NRI repatriation works now
- Selling a Mohali property from abroad: the TDS rule for buyers
- What do India's property rules say once an NRI takes Canadian or American citizenship
- Can an NRI buy property in India: Mohali guide

Sources: Reserve Bank of India frequently asked questions on purchase of immovable property, Part II question seven clause c, page updated on the sixth of April twenty twenty three. Foreign Exchange Management Non-debt Instruments Rules of two thousand and nineteen. Rule twenty nine is the remittance rule. Rule twenty four is the acquisition route those remittance conditions point back to. Reserve Bank of India Master Direction on Remittance of Assets, updated on the twenty ninth of June twenty twenty six, for the yearly NRO ceiling named only as background. The sources we use are listed on our Editorial Sources page.

This piece describes the published text of the Reserve Bank's answer and of rule twenty nine. Nothing here is legal or tax advice, and every remittance turns on its own papers and the bank's checks.