Can NRIs Buy Agricultural Land in Telangana? Rules, Exceptions and Alternatives

It is one of the questions we are asked most often by NRIs from Telangana: can NRIs buy agricultural land in Telangana? Usually the question comes with a story. A cousin has found ten acres near Shankarpally at a good price, a farm venture near Shadnagar is selling managed mango plots in guntas to "NRI members", or a parent wants to transfer the family farm into a son's name in New Jersey. The answer is clear, and it is not the one most people want to hear. Under India's foreign exchange law, NRIs and OCI cardholders cannot purchase agricultural land, plantation property or farmhouses anywhere in India, including Telangana, and cannot receive them as a gift either. The only route by which an NRI can come to own farm land is inheritance. This guide explains the precise FEMA position, what inheritance allows and what it does not, what happens if you already hold inherited farm land, the workarounds people try and why they are dangerous, the legal alternatives that give you land exposure without breaking the law, and what the Dharani and Bhu Bharati land records system means for NRI landholders.

As always, we are property advisors, not lawyers or chartered accountants. We explain the framework as of October 2026 and recommend specific legal and tax advice for your situation, particularly where family succession is involved.

The short answer for NRIs and OCIs

Route	Agricultural land, plantation property or farmhouse
Purchase by an NRI or OCI	Not permitted
Gift to an NRI or OCI, including from a resident relative	Not permitted
Inheritance by an NRI or OCI	Permitted
Continuing to hold land bought while you were resident in India	Permitted
Sale or gift by an NRI or OCI holder	Only to an Indian citizen resident in India

Everything else in this guide is detail around these five lines.

The FEMA position, stated precisely

Acquisition of immovable property in India by persons resident outside India is governed by the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, together with the Reserve Bank of India's directions under them. For NRIs and OCIs, the framework works like this.

Purchase

An NRI or OCI may purchase any immovable property in India other than agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse. Residential and commercial property can be bought freely, without RBI permission and without any limit on the number. Agricultural land, plantations and farmhouses are carved out entirely; there is no general permission to buy them, whatever the size of the parcel or the purpose.

Gift

An NRI or OCI may receive residential or commercial property as a gift from a relative, whether that relative is resident in India or is themselves an NRI or OCI. The same exclusion applies: agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses cannot be gifted to an NRI or OCI. Many websites and even some local intermediaries claim that a resident parent can gift farm land to a child abroad. Under the rules as they stand, that is not correct, and a gift deed executed on that assumption exposes both parties.

Inheritance

An NRI or OCI may acquire any immovable property in India, including agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses, by inheritance, either from a person resident in India or from a person resident outside India who had acquired the property in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time. This applies to inheritance under a will and to succession under personal law where there is no will.

Land you bought while you were resident

FEMA also allows a person resident outside India to continue to hold, own and transfer immovable property in India that they acquired while they were resident in India. If you bought farm land near Moinabad in 2015 while working in Hyderabad and moved to the US in 2019, you may continue to hold it. When you sell or gift it, the same restriction applies: the recipient must be an Indian citizen resident in India.

What counts as agricultural land, plantation or farmhouse

The rules do not create a separate national definition; in practice, the character of land is read from the revenue records and land-use status. In Telangana, land recorded as agricultural in the record of rights and not converted to non-agricultural use under the NALA Act is agricultural land, whatever the brochure calls it. Plantation property covers estates such as tea, coffee or rubber. A farmhouse is generally understood as a dwelling on agricultural land. A "weekend villa" built on unconverted farm land is therefore a farmhouse for these purposes.

Consequences of contravention

Contravening FEMA can attract a penalty of up to three times the sum involved where it is quantifiable, and authorities can direct that the property be disposed of. These are civil consequences under FEMA; the workarounds discussed below can also attract criminal consequences under other laws.

Inheriting farm land in Telangana as an NRI

Inheritance is the one legitimate route, and many NRIs from Telangana will use it at some point. Doing it properly protects the land from disputes and encroachment for decades.

How the transfer is recorded

1. Establish the right to inherit. With a will, you need the will and, where required, probate or letters of administration. Without a will, succession follows personal law, and you typically need a death certificate and a legal heir or family member certificate issued by the revenue authorities.
2. Settle shares among heirs. Where several heirs inherit, a registered partition deed or family settlement records who gets which survey numbers. Unrecorded oral arrangements between siblings are the root of many later disputes.
3. Apply for succession mutation. In Telangana, mutation of agricultural land on succession is handled through the state's land records system and the mandal Tahsildar's office. Once approved, the record of rights shows you as pattadar and a pattadar passbook is issued in your name.
4. Keep records current. Check the online record periodically to confirm your name, extent and survey numbers remain correct.

What you can do with inherited farm land

• Hold it indefinitely. There is no requirement to sell inherited agricultural land because you are an NRI.
• Have it cultivated or leased. Many NRI owners have relatives or local farmers cultivate the land. Put any lease in writing and take legal advice on local tenancy implications. Income is received in India, typically into an NRO account; ask your CA how agricultural and other income from the land is taxed.
• Sell it, but only to a resident Indian citizen. You cannot sell inherited farm land to another NRI or to an OCI. The buyer must be an Indian citizen resident in India.
• Gift it, but only to a resident Indian citizen. The same restriction applies to gifts.
• Repatriate sale proceeds within limits. Proceeds from inherited property can be repatriated from your NRO account within the annual limit of USD 1 million per financial year, after applicable taxes and with the required CA certification. On the sale, the buyer will deduct TDS under Section 195 at the applicable LTCG or STCG rate plus surcharge and cess; your CA should plan this, including any lower-deduction certificate.

A note on tax when you sell

Income-tax law treats agricultural land differently depending on where it lies. Land beyond specified distances from municipal limits can fall outside the definition of a capital asset, while land closer to towns is taxed like other property. Many parcels around Hyderabad that were once rural now sit within or near expanded municipal limits, so the answer can change over time. Ask your CA to confirm the position for your survey numbers before you agree a price, because it affects both your tax and the TDS your buyer will deduct.

Ceiling and other limits still apply

Inheritance does not exempt land from Telangana's land ceiling law, Section 22-A prohibited lists, or restrictions on assigned land under the POT Act. If your family's land includes assigned land granted to landless families, it may be heritable but not transferable by sale. Check this before you plan an exit.

Workarounds people try, and why they are dangerous

We regularly meet NRIs who have been offered a "simple way" to own farm land. Every one of the following carries legal risk to you, and in several cases to the relative helping you.

Buying in a resident relative's name with your money

This is the most common arrangement: you send the money, a brother or parent buys the land in their own name, and the family agrees it is "really yours". Under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, a property held by one person but paid for by another, for that other's benefit, is a benami transaction. Consequences can include confiscation of the property by the government, prosecution and a fine linked to the property's fair market value. There are limited exceptions in that law, for example certain property held in the name of a spouse, child or some relatives where the consideration came from known sources, but those exceptions do not turn an arrangement designed to bypass FEMA into a lawful one, and relying on them without specialist advice is reckless. Even setting the law aside, you have no enforceable claim if the relative later refuses to transfer the land, falls into debt, or dies and their heirs claim it.

A resident proxy with a GPA or unregistered agreement

A variant: a resident friend or employee buys the land, and gives you a general power of attorney, an agreement of sale or a declaration of trust in your favour. These documents do not make the acquisition lawful, may themselves evidence the FEMA contravention and the benami arrangement, and are often unenforceable precisely because the underlying arrangement is illegal.

"Managed farmland" and farm-plot memberships

Gated farm ventures selling 10 to 40 gunta plots with mango trees, drip irrigation and a clubhouse are marketed heavily to NRIs. Unless the land has been converted under NALA and the layout approved for non-agricultural use, these plots remain agricultural land on record. Structures that sell you a "membership", "share" or "development rights" instead of a registered sale deed do not change the character of the land, and they often leave you with neither ownership nor lawful protection.

Buying through a company or LLP

Some intermediaries suggest buying through an Indian company that you own or fund. Foreign investment in Indian entities engaged in agricultural land acquisition, real estate business or farmhouse construction is prohibited or tightly restricted, and companies holding agricultural land face separate state-law restrictions. This route usually adds regulatory problems instead of solving one.

Declaring yourself resident

Signing a registration declaration that you are resident in India when you are not is a false declaration. It does not change your FEMA status, and it compounds the contravention.

Our position is simple: NRR Estates will not facilitate any of these structures, and we advise clients who already hold land this way to take legal advice on regularising or unwinding the arrangement.

Four situations we see, and the lawful answer

"My father wants to transfer his farm to me now, while he is alive."

A gift deed in favour of an NRI is not permitted for agricultural land. The lawful options are for your father to make a will in your favour, so that the land passes to you by inheritance, or to transfer it to a resident Indian family member if that suits the family's wider plans. A registered will, properly witnessed and kept safely, is usually the cleanest path. Take legal advice on how the will interacts with other heirs' rights under personal law.

"I bought farm land before I moved abroad."

You can keep it. Make sure the record of rights is in your name and correct, keep the land in use, and remember that when you sell, the buyer must be a resident Indian citizen. Your CA will advise on capital gains and repatriation.

"My brother bought land for me with my money years ago."

This is the benami scenario described above, and it is more common than people admit. Do not add to it with further payments or side agreements. Speak to a lawyer about your exposure and the options for regularising the position, which may involve the land remaining with the resident relative.

"I want a weekend farmhouse near Hyderabad for when I visit."

A farmhouse on agricultural land is excluded. A villa or villa plot in an approved gated layout in a green belt such as Mokila, Shankarpally or Chevella gives you a very similar experience with a title you can lawfully hold, rent out when you are away, and sell to anyone later.

Legal alternatives that give NRIs land exposure

If what you want is a piece of land near Hyderabad, a place to build a weekend home or a long-term land holding, there are lawful routes that come close.

NALA-converted, approved residential plots

Land converted to non-agricultural use under the Telangana NALA Act and laid out in an HMDA or DTCP approved layout is no longer agricultural land. NRIs can buy such plots freely. In the western belt, approved plots in places such as Shankarpally and Kollur let you hold land with real appreciation potential; see our guides to open plots in Shankarpally and open plots in Kollur. In the south, HMDA layouts along the Maheshwaram and Srisailam highway corridor are popular; our page on open plots in Maheshwaram sets out prices by approval type.

Villa plots and villas in gated communities near farm belts

If the attraction is green space and a weekend retreat, a villa or villa plot in an approved gated community in the Mokila and Shankarpally belt gives you that environment with a lawful title. Our guides to villas in Mokila and villas in Shankarpally cover that market. The farm land next door may look similar, but only the approved villa plot is open to you.

Apartments and villas in the city

For investment rather than lifestyle, residential property in Hyderabad remains the most liquid lawful option; our NRI guide to buying villas and apartments in Hyderabad covers micro-markets and budgets.

REITs

Listed real estate investment trusts, some with large Hyderabad office portfolios, offer exposure to commercial real estate income without owning property directly. They are a financial investment; discuss them with your financial advisor.

Buy after you return

FEMA restricts persons resident outside India. Once you return and become resident in India under FEMA, you can buy agricultural land in Telangana like any other resident. Telangana, unlike some other states, does not generally restrict purchase of agricultural land by non-agriculturists, though ceiling limits and other land laws still apply. Many returning NRIs plan their farm purchase for the year after they move back.

Indicative prices: what lawful alternatives cost

Alternative	Indicative range (October 2026)
HMDA-approved plots, Shankarpally outer villages	₹11,000 – ₹24,000 per sq yd
HMDA-approved plots, Kollur	₹36,000 – ₹65,000 per sq yd
Villa plots in approved gated layouts, Mokila belt	₹45,000 – ₹85,000 per sq yd
Row or twin villas, Mokila belt	₹1.7 Cr – ₹3 Cr
DTCP-approved plots near district towns	₹6,000 – ₹30,000 per sq yd

These ranges come from recent transactions and advisor observation and are indicative only. For comparison, farm land in the same western belt, which NRIs cannot buy, trades in crores per acre; see agriculture land in Mokila if you are advising a resident family member.

Dharani, Bhu Bharati and what they mean for NRI landholders

Telangana overhauled its land records in 2020 with the Dharani portal, which digitised the record of rights, issued new pattadar passbooks and moved registration and mutation of agricultural land to mandal Tahsildar offices acting as joint sub-registrars. In 2025 the state replaced Dharani with the Bhu Bharati record-of-rights system, introducing revised mutation procedures and a structured appeals mechanism for record errors. Older Dharani records carry over, and you will still see references to Dharani in documents and on dharani.telangana.gov.in.

Practical implications for NRIs

• Identity and OTP processes. The digital system leans heavily on Aadhaar and mobile OTPs. NRIs without Aadhaar historically faced difficulty, and passport-based provisions for NRI pattadars were introduced; confirm the current procedure before you apply for mutation or a passbook correction.
• Record errors. The migration to digital records left some parcels with wrong extents, missing survey numbers, wrong names or land wrongly placed on prohibited lists. Absentee owners often discover these years later. Check your record now, not when you want to sell.
• Agricultural land registration happens at the Tahsildar office. If you are selling inherited farm land to a resident buyer, the sale deed is executed at the mandal Tahsildar office, not the urban sub-registrar office. Your attorney under a POA needs to be prepared for that office's procedures.
• Purchases are blocked at source. Because registration requires declarations about the buyer, an NRI attempting to buy agricultural land in their own name will typically be stopped at registration. That is one reason the illegal workarounds above exist, and one more reason not to use them.
• Succession mutation is the critical step. When land is inherited, completing succession mutation promptly, with all heirs' shares clearly recorded, is the best defence against later disputes and fraudulent sales.

Protecting inherited farm land while you live abroad

Unattended farm land is vulnerable. Encroachment, boundary shifting and fraudulent sales using forged documents are real risks for NRI owners, especially on the fringes of Hyderabad where land values have risen sharply.

• Fence the boundary and maintain survey stones; get a licensed surveyor to fix boundaries against the official sketch.
• Keep the land in visible use, through cultivation or a written lease.
• Check the online record of rights and encumbrance status every few months for unexpected changes.
• Store original passbooks and title documents securely, with scanned copies in a vault you control.
• Avoid broad general powers of attorney; use specific, time-limited POAs for defined tasks and revoke them afterwards.
• Arrange periodic site inspections with photographs and a short written report.

How NRR Estates helps NRIs with farm land questions

We cannot help an NRI buy agricultural land, and we will tell you so plainly. What we can do, with fees disclosed in advance:

1. Clarify your position. Review how you came to hold, or expect to hold, the land and what FEMA allows, working with your lawyer and CA.
2. Support succession. Coordinate documents for succession mutation and partition among heirs, and follow up with the Tahsildar's office.
3. Audit your records. Check the record of rights, survey numbers, extents, encumbrances and prohibited lists, and help correct errors through the proper channels.
4. Protect the land. Arrange surveys, fencing, leases and periodic inspections.
5. Exit lawfully. Find resident Indian buyers, negotiate, coordinate registration by POA at the Tahsildar office, and work with your CA on TDS and repatriation.
6. Find lawful alternatives. Shortlist approved plots, villa plots and homes that give you the land exposure you want, as set out in our complete guide to NRI investment in Telangana.

Frequently asked questions: NRIs and agricultural land in Telangana

Can an NRI buy agricultural land in Telangana?

No. Under FEMA and the Non-Debt Instruments Rules, 2019, NRIs and OCI cardholders cannot purchase agricultural land, plantation property or farmhouses anywhere in India, including Telangana. This applies whatever the size of the parcel or the intended use. NRIs can freely buy residential and commercial property, including NALA-converted plots in HMDA or DTCP approved layouts. The only way an NRI can come to own agricultural land is by inheritance, or by continuing to hold land they bought while they were resident in India.

Can my parents gift agricultural land to me if I am an NRI?

No. NRIs and OCIs may receive residential or commercial property as a gift from a relative, but agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses are excluded from that permission. A gift deed of farm land in favour of an NRI child is therefore not permitted. The lawful route is inheritance: your parents can leave the land to you by a registered will, or it can pass to you by succession. Take legal advice on drafting the will and how it interacts with other heirs' rights.

What can an NRI do with inherited agricultural land?

You can continue to hold it indefinitely, have it cultivated or lease it under a written agreement, and receive income in India, usually into an NRO account. If you sell or gift it, the recipient must be an Indian citizen resident in India; you cannot sell it to another NRI or an OCI. Sale proceeds can be repatriated from your NRO account within USD 1 million per financial year after applicable taxes. Ceiling limits, assigned land rules and Section 22-A restrictions continue to apply to inherited land.

Can an OCI cardholder buy farm land in Telangana?

No. OCI cardholders are treated on par with NRIs for most property purposes, and the same exclusion applies: they cannot purchase or receive as a gift agricultural land, plantation property or farmhouses. They can inherit such property and can buy residential and commercial property freely. Former PIO cardholders should convert to OCI. Foreign nationals without OCI status face a more restrictive regime and should take specific legal advice before acquiring any property in India.

Is it legal to buy farm land in a relative's name with my money?

No. If you pay and a resident relative holds the land for your benefit, it is likely a benami transaction under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, which provides for confiscation of the property, prosecution and fines. It also amounts to an indirect FEMA contravention, with penalties of up to three times the amount involved. Practically, you have no enforceable claim if the relative refuses to transfer, runs into debt or dies. NRR Estates does not facilitate such arrangements and advises taking legal advice if you already hold land this way.

Can NRIs buy managed farmland or farm plots sold in guntas?

Usually not. Farm plots in gated farm ventures remain agricultural land on record unless the land has been converted under the Telangana NALA Act and the layout approved for non-agricultural use. Buying such a plot as an NRI is a FEMA contravention, regardless of whether it is sold as a plot, a membership, a share or development rights. If you want a green, weekend-style property, a villa or villa plot in an HMDA or DTCP approved gated layout in belts such as Mokila or Shankarpally is the lawful alternative.

How do Dharani and Bhu Bharati affect NRIs holding farm land?

Telangana digitised land records through Dharani in 2020 and replaced it with the Bhu Bharati record-of-rights system in 2025, with revised mutation and appeal procedures. Agricultural land registration and mutation take place at mandal Tahsildar offices. NRIs may face Aadhaar and OTP hurdles, so confirm the current passport-based procedure. Digitisation also left some records with wrong extents, names or prohibited-list entries, so NRI owners should check their records now and complete succession mutation promptly after inheriting.

Can I buy agricultural land after I return to India?

Yes. FEMA restrictions apply to persons resident outside India. Once you return and become resident under FEMA, you can buy agricultural land in Telangana like any other resident, subject to ceiling limits and the usual title checks. Telangana does not generally restrict purchase of agricultural land by non-agriculturists, unlike some other states. Many returning NRIs shortlist farm land during their last year abroad and complete the purchase after they move back, which avoids any temptation to use risky workarounds.