The Silent Wealth Drain: NRIs Are Unknowingly Losing Their Indian Properties, What’s Behind The Scene?

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) around the world are grappling with a growing crisis affecting their properties back home. Whether they are empty flats in Bengaluru or inherited family homes in Delhi, a number of NRIs are starting to become aware of the transition position of property ownership that has transitioned from asset to liability without actually knowing it.

GoodReturns reached out to a sample of NRIs and found that some of them were well aware, while others seemed to be in a dilemma when asked about their take on the housing market in India.

The complexity of this problem is immense. From January 2021 to 2024, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) received 140 complaints from non-resident Indians (NRIs) in 18 states about property. Tamil Nadu had the most complaints, with 22 cases, ahead of Uttar Pradesh (18), Delhi (12), Punjab (11), and Kerala (11).

This is really only scratching the surface, because many NRIs around the world have not realized their property status is deteriorating over time. Still, projections suggest NRIs will constitute 20 percent of the nation's real estate sector investments by 2025, according to proptech unicorn NoBroker.

NRI Real Estate Investments in India

A detailed table of Non-Resident Indian (NRI) real estate investments in key Indian cities can be found here.

From Dream Investment to Daily Hassles: Why NRIs Find Indian Real Estate Hard to Handle

"It was quite easy to choose the property and get the builder to book it. The headache with the loan and related paperwork was the challenge. Same when it came to signing the registration document and power of attorney," said Ravi Kumar, a software professional based out of Greater Minneapolis in U.S.

"If you bought land and do not have an e-khata there are no options to pay your property taxes online. There could be an app to track all your assets."

The basic problem lies in the practical impossibility of managing property effectively at a distance of thousands of miles. NRIs from developed markets, such as the US, UK, UAE, or Singapore, find themselves buried in bureaucratic challenges of managing their investment in India.

The absence of managing agents, non-working foreign payment cards for local transactions, and limited digital access to government agencies create an overwhelming barrier to proper investment management.

Registration Bill 2025 Marks A Digital Shift in Property Ownership

An urgent reminder to tackle these issues is the need of the hour.

"The Registration Bill 2025 is a fresh new direction by the Government, it was overdue. With this, the government is pushing for a vision of what we at ezyLegal have always advocated - that legal ownership in India should be as clean and digitally accessible as anywhere else," said John Bayan, co-founder and chief growth officer at ezyLegal.

"This will not just change compliance. This is about a mindset. Every property owner, more so the NRIs, will need to take advantage of it now. As we have said to property owners in our own way to understand the impact of legacy paperwork, once the liability of legacy paperwork is set before them."

The potential severe financial implications can't be overstated either. Properties that generate the proverbial piddly light rental income of say Rs 10,000 while being burdened with an annual maintenance cost i.e., the Japanese Kakeibo way of Rs 30,000 represent negative cash flow investments.

Meanwhile, these funds, in any other circumstances, could get substantially more lucrative yields in global markets, which is another factor that becomes compounded over time.

INR vs USD With Court Chaos: Hidden Costs of NRI Property Investments in India

Currency also adds ambiguity. The Indian rupee has been depreciating against the U.S. dollar for the past several years. This is another cause of worry.

"Worrying about a weakening INR vs USD the issue is this. When someone owned assets in India when the dollar was 60 against the rupee five years ago. Now, the dollar is around 90, he lost the profit, if he wants his money brought to the U.S.," added Kumar from U.S.

Legal vulnerabilities pose the largest risk. Unfortunately, we routinely read about fraudulent sales of properties where the seller uses forged documents. In Ludhiana, a notorious recent case took prime land worth Rs 6 crores for Rs 30 lakh, impersonated by the seller, showing the highest level of risk that NRIs can face.

Adding to this risk, the Indian judicial system is overburdened, with already over 52 million pending cases in 2025, and at least 20% with property and land disputes.

When asked about the trends observed in the real estate market that may affect NRI property ownership moving forward, Ajay Raina, a London-based professional working at PricewaterhouseCoopers chose Tier 2 cities as the centre of attraction for NRI real estate investors.

"I think Tier 2 cities would be the next interesting area for NRIs. There is very limited knowledge and understanding. Similarly, buy-to-let, especially in touristy places, would be interesting," Raina added.

"(The property management companies can) manage the end-to-end bill payments, source/vet/manage tenants, represent in housing associations, timely communication of potential concerns, manage transfer of deed, selling and transfer, tax management etc."

The solution requires full digital transformation and professional property management that speaks to NRI needs. Siddharth Maurya, Founder & Managing Director, Vibhavangal Anukulakara Private Limited, advocates for systematic approaches to property management that utilize technology and legal services.

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