If you live in Toronto, London, Melbourne or Dubai and your family has asked you to “look at something in Mohali”, you are facing a narrower decision than most NRI property investment articles assume.
Your income is in one currency and your family is in another country. You cannot walk a site on a Tuesday afternoon. The real question is not whether Indian property makes sense in the abstract, but whether the Chandigarh Tricity earns a place on your shortlist against the cities that dominate NRI coverage: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR.
This article covers what the Tricity genuinely offers an overseas buyer, what it does not offer yet, and the rules that apply to you specifically because you are not resident in India.
Why the Tricity keeps appearing on NRI property investment shortlists
The most useful signal is where India’s overseas money is now coming from. The Reserve Bank of India’s sixth round of its inward remittances survey, covering 2023-24 and published in the March 2025 RBI Bulletin, found that the United States accounted for 27.7% of India’s total remittances, ahead of the UAE at 19.2% and the United Kingdom at 10.8% (Reserve Bank of India, 2025). The survey covered 30 banks representing close to 99% of remittance value reported for family maintenance and savings.
The RBI described this as a gradual shift in dominance away from the Gulf towards advanced economies, with the US, the UK, Singapore, Canada and Australia together accounting for more than half of remittances in 2023-24.
That matters here for a specific reason. Punjab’s emigration has historically flowed to exactly those countries. Estimates reported by The Tribune put Punjab’s overseas population at roughly 50 to 60 lakh, including around 12 lakh in Canada, 7 lakh in the UK, 2.5 lakh in the US, 2.3 lakh in Australia and 2 lakh in Italy. These are estimates rather than a census count, so treat them as indicative of scale rather than precise figures.
The practical consequence is that the Tricity is not competing for general NRI capital in the way Mumbai or Bengaluru does. It draws on buyers who have family, land or schooling history within a two-hour drive of Chandigarh. That gives the market a different character: more end-user purchases, fewer purely speculative ones, and resale demand that comes largely from residents rather than from other investors.
In the enquiries we handle from overseas clients, price is rarely the first question. What comes up first is who will physically inspect the site, whether the title is clean, and what happens if the buyer cannot travel to India for a year. That ordering tells you what the real friction is, and it is not affordability.
What the airport actually gives you, and what it does not
This is where most NRI-focused content about the region becomes unreliable, so it is worth being direct.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, located in Mohali, has grown substantially. Annual passenger traffic rose from about 15 lakh in 2015-16 to roughly 40 lakh in 2024-25, and current traffic runs at around 40 to 42.5 lakh against a terminal designed for 60 lakh passengers a year. The runway is 10,400 feet and can handle wide-body aircraft, and the airport serves a combined population of nearly 7 crore across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh (The Tribune, February 2026).
Now the part that competing articles leave out. The airport operates only two overseas services, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, both by IndiGo. It still does not hold Point of Call designation, which is the status foreign carriers require in order to schedule international services under India’s bilateral air service agreements. Without it, the airport cannot appear on bilateral offer lists no matter how much demand or runway capacity exists. The plea has been pending for a decade.
For you as a buyer, that means something concrete. If you are in Canada, the UK, Australia or continental Europe, you will still connect through Delhi and then drive roughly four hours, or take a domestic hop. If you are in the UAE, you have a direct daily option. Anyone telling you the Tricity offers seamless global connectivity today is describing an ambition rather than a timetable.
Whether you treat this as a risk or an opportunity depends on your horizon. The headroom is real, since traffic sits well below terminal capacity and the runway already takes wide-body aircraft. But a regulatory clearance that has not moved in ten years should not be priced into what you pay in 2026. Buy on what exists, and treat Point of Call as an upside you have not paid for. The localities sitting closest to the airport carry this trade-off most directly, and our Aerocity Mohali buyer’s guide covers that micro-market in more detail.
The three-jurisdiction problem nobody warns NRIs about
The Tricity looks like one market on a map and behaves like three in a registry office. Mohali and Zirakpur are in Punjab. Panchkula is in Haryana. Chandigarh is a Union Territory. Your verification portal, your stamp duty and your registration process all change depending on which side of an invisible line the property sits.
| Mohali, Zirakpur, Kharar | Panchkula | |
|---|---|---|
| State | Punjab | Haryana |
| Regulator | Punjab RERA (rera.punjab.gov.in) | Haryana RERA (haryanarera.gov.in) |
| Stamp duty, male buyer | 7% | 7% urban, 5% rural |
| Stamp duty, female buyer | 5% | 5% urban, 3% rural |
| Registration fee | 1% | 1%, minimum ₹1,000 |
Sources: Department of Revenue, Government of Punjab and Jamabandi, Government of Haryana. Rates change with state budgets and periodic rebate schemes, so confirm the figure applicable on your registration date.
The error we see most often from overseas buyers is checking a Zirakpur project on the Haryana portal because Zirakpur sits next to Panchkula. It is a Punjab town and appears only on the Punjab register. If a project cannot be found on the correct state portal, that is not a technical glitch to work around. Treat it as a reason to stop.
Registering in a woman’s name is also worth raising with your family before the sale deed is drafted, since the two percentage point difference is meaningful on a purchase of any size. If you are still comparing localities, our area guides for property in Mohali, property in Zirakpur and property in Panchkula set out how each side of the boundary differs in practice.
What you are allowed to buy, and what you are not
Under the Foreign Exchange Management (Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property in India) Regulations, 2018, an NRI or OCI cardholder may acquire residential and commercial immovable property in India without needing prior approval from the Reserve Bank (Reserve Bank of India).
There is one restriction that catches Punjabi NRIs more than most. You may not purchase agricultural land, a farmhouse or plantation property. This applies regardless of how long your family has held land in the state or whether you inherited farmland separately. Inheritance is treated differently from purchase, so if your objective is to buy back ancestral farmland, that specific plan does not work under the current rules and needs professional advice rather than a workaround.
On taking money out again, the RBI permits repatriation of sale proceeds from immovable property other than agricultural land, farmhouses and plantations, subject to conditions. The property must have been acquired in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time, and the purchase must have been funded through banking channels in foreign exchange or from an FCNR or NRE account. A remittance limit of up to USD 1 million per financial year applies across all bona fide purposes.
The practical implication is about paperwork rather than permission. How you fund the purchase determines how easily you can take proceeds out later, so route the money correctly from the first payment rather than trying to reconstruct the trail years afterwards.
Buying from abroad without flying in repeatedly
Most overseas purchases in this region are completed with one or two trips rather than continuous presence, provided the documentation is set up properly at the start.
A Power of Attorney is the usual mechanism, allowing a trusted person in India to sign on your behalf. India is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, 1961, which means a document apostilled in a member country requires no further attestation or legalisation for use in India (Ministry of External Affairs). If your country of residence is not a Convention member, the document goes through attestation at the Indian mission instead.
Choose the holder carefully and keep the powers narrow. A POA drawn widely enough to sell as well as buy is a serious exposure. Limit it to the transaction at hand, define an expiry, and have it drafted by a lawyer rather than adapted from a template.
Before any money moves, the verification sequence stays the same whether you are in Chandigarh or Calgary. Confirm the project on the correct state RERA portal. Check the title and chain of ownership. Confirm approved layout and land use for a plot, or the occupancy or completion certificate for a completed flat. For an under-construction purchase, check what has actually been built against what has been sanctioned. Ask for a dated video walkthrough rather than a brochure render, since brochures show intent and video shows progress.
Choosing who represents you locally matters more when you cannot inspect anything yourself, and our guide on how to pick a property dealer in Mohali sets out the checks worth running on any agent, including RERA registration.
The exit cost most NRIs discover too late
This is the point that changes decisions, and it rarely appears in NRI marketing content.
When a resident sells property in India, the buyer deducts TDS at 1% under Section 194-IA. When a non-resident sells, the buyer must deduct under Section 195 instead, at 20% plus applicable surcharge and cess on long-term capital gains where the property has been held beyond two years, and at 30% for short-term gains (Income Tax Department).
You can reduce this. An NRI seller may apply to the Income Tax Department for a nil or lower deduction certificate, and where one is granted the buyer deducts at the certified rate instead. But that requires planning ahead of the sale, not during it.
The reason this belongs in a buying decision is that it shapes your resale pool. A resident buyer purchasing from you takes on a compliance obligation they would not face when buying from another resident. Some buyers, and some smaller agents, avoid that complication entirely. In a locality with deep local end-user demand, this is a minor friction. In a thinly traded pocket where most owners are also investors waiting to exit, it can be the difference between selling in three months and selling in eighteen.
That argues for a particular kind of purchase. Prefer localities where people actually want to live rather than where people are waiting to flip, and prefer property types that a salaried resident family can finance. It is a less exciting strategy than buying the earliest plot in an emerging belt, and it is considerably easier to exit. Our sector-by-sector guides to buying property in Mohali and the best areas in Zirakpur separate the end-user pockets from the speculative ones.
Who the Tricity suits, and who it should not
The region tends to suit NRIs with genuine ties to Punjab, Haryana or Himachal, especially those planning eventual return, supporting parents locally, or holding for a decade or more. End-user purchases in established areas do well here because resident demand is real and not manufactured.
It suits you less well in three situations. If you want maximum liquidity and the ability to exit within two or three years, larger metros have deeper transaction volumes and more institutional buyers. If your priority is a direct flight for frequent visits, the current route map does not support that outside the UAE. And if you are buying purely on infrastructure announcements rather than what has been built, the Tricity has a long record of approved projects moving slowly, which rewards patience over timing.
No location performs for every objective. The honest position is that the Tricity is a reasonable long-hold, family-linked market with real end-user demand and a genuine airport constraint. It is not a fast-turnover investment market, and it should not be sold to you as one.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy property in India while living abroad?
Yes. Under the FEMA regulations of 2018, an NRI or OCI cardholder may buy residential and commercial property in India without prior RBI approval. Agricultural land, farmhouses and plantation property are excluded. Funding should be routed through banking channels or NRE, NRO or FCNR accounts, since this affects your ability to repatriate proceeds later.
Can I complete the purchase without travelling to India?
Usually yes, with a properly executed Power of Attorney appointing someone you trust in India. If you live in a Hague Apostille Convention country, an apostilled POA needs no further legalisation. Keep the powers limited to the specific transaction and give it an expiry date rather than granting open-ended authority.
How much money can I take out after selling?
The RBI allows repatriation of sale proceeds subject to conditions, within an overall limit of up to USD 1 million per financial year across all bona fide purposes. The property must have been acquired in line with the foreign exchange law applicable at the time, and funded through banking channels or from an FCNR or NRE account.
Does Zirakpur come under Punjab RERA or Haryana RERA?
Punjab RERA. Zirakpur is a Punjab town despite bordering Panchkula in Haryana, and it appears only on the Punjab register at rera.punjab.gov.in. This is the single most common verification error among buyers who are not on the ground.
What tax applies when I eventually sell?
Your buyer must deduct TDS under Section 195, at 20% plus surcharge and cess on long-term gains for property held beyond two years, or 30% on short-term gains. Resident sellers face 1% under Section 194-IA instead. You may apply for a nil or lower deduction certificate from the Income Tax Department before the sale.
Is now a good time to buy in the Tricity?
That depends on your horizon rather than on the calendar. The region has real end-user demand and meaningful airport headroom, but also a pending Point of Call clearance that has not moved in ten years and infrastructure projects that have historically run late. Buy on what has been built and treat announced projects as upside you have not paid for. No one can tell you what prices will do.
Bringing it together
The case for the Chandigarh Tricity as a destination for NRI property investment rests on something fairly unglamorous: it is where a large, well-established diaspora already has family, and remittance flows have shifted decisively towards exactly those countries. That produces steadier end-user demand than a market driven by investors selling to other investors.
The case against is equally concrete. The international airport is international in designation more than in schedule, three separate jurisdictions govern one urban area, and your eventual exit carries a tax deduction that resident sellers do not face. None of these are reasons to avoid the region. They are reasons to buy deliberately, in localities with genuine resident demand, with your funding routed correctly from the first instalment.
If you are weighing the Tricity against other Indian cities, or comparing localities within it, our NRI services page explains how we work with overseas clients, and you are welcome to talk through your requirement and timeline before you shortlist anything.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, financial, tax or investment advice. Property laws, regulations, tax rules, market conditions and other requirements may change over time. Readers should independently verify relevant information and consult qualified legal, tax, financial or other professionals before making a property-related decision. Dewan Realtors makes no guarantee regarding future property prices, investment returns, rental income or other financial outcomes.
This article discusses FEMA regulations, RERA verification, repatriation limits and TDS provisions that apply to non-residents. All such information is general in nature and current requirements should be verified with a qualified professional or the relevant official authority, including the Reserve Bank of India, the Income Tax Department, Punjab RERA or Haryana RERA, before you act on it.
