Master Direction No. 12/2015-16, Acquisition or Transfer of Immovable Property under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999

What it does

Master Direction No. 12/2015-16 is the Reserve Bank of India's compilation of the foreign exchange rules on immovable property. It collects, in one document, what a non-resident Indian, an overseas citizen of India cardholder or another person resident outside India may do with immovable property in India: acquire it, hold it, transfer it, and move the sale money out of the country. The year 1999 in the title is that of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, under which the direction operates. The direction itself belongs to the financial year 2015-16.

The substance of the rules now rests on the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 of 17 October 2019, which replaced the 2018 regulations on immovable property. The Master Direction compiles the working rules for authorised dealer banks and for the parties they serve. The site's note, which reads the version updated to 1 September 2022, relies on it for that reason.

Who it binds

It binds authorised dealer banks, which must apply it when they process a transfer or a repatriation, and, through them, persons resident outside India who hold or deal in property in India. An NRI is a person resident outside India who is a citizen of India. An OCI is a person resident outside India who is registered as an Overseas Citizen of India cardholder under section 7A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Citizens of certain named countries need the Reserve Bank's permission to acquire or transfer property, and the direction exempts an OCI from that bar (paragraph 9.2).

What has changed, and when

• The Master Direction was issued for 2015-16 and has been updated. The site's note on selling property and remitting abroad reads the version updated to 1 September 2022.
• The underlying rules were replaced by the Non-debt Instruments Rules, 2019 on 17 October 2019, as above.
• Money leaving India after a sale is also subject to the separate remittance directions, and tax rules changed on 1 April 2026 with the Income-tax Act, 2025. The direction is read together with those other instruments.

What turns on it in practice

The transfer rule is permissive. Under paragraph 3.2 of Part II, an NRI or an OCI may transfer any immovable property in India to a person resident in India. Transfer to another NRI or OCI is permitted, except for agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse.

Repatriating the sale proceeds is where conditions bite. Paragraph 8.2 lets the authorised dealer allow repatriation of the sale proceeds of property other than agricultural land, a farmhouse or plantation property, if the property was acquired in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time and the purchase money was paid in foreign exchange through banking channels, or from an FCNR(B) or NRE account. For residential property, repatriation is limited to not more than two such properties. Paragraph 8.1 bars repatriating the proceeds of property that the seller held while resident in India, or inherited from a resident, without the Reserve Bank's permission.

That does not leave such a seller without a route. A seller resident outside India can use the remittance facilities of the Remittance of Assets Regulations, 2016, under which an NRI or person of Indian origin may remit up to USD 1 million a financial year from NRO balances or sale proceeds on documents, with prior approval above that amount. The two routes sit in two directions, and the facts of the purchase decide which one is open.

The site's tax note on an NRI or OCI selling a flat and sending the money abroad puts the direction to work: which paragraph applies, which route the proceeds take and what the buyer must withhold. The same direction applies in the other direction, to inheriting and holding property, which the site's property and succession work covers.