Tips for buying property outside India
The rising income level of many High Net worth Individuals (HNIs) have boosted their chance and opportunity to invest in properties outside India. Buying a home abroad is no longer an unreal dream for Indians. More and more number of Indians are looking to buy international properties on the backdrop of rising income level and affordability of foreign properties at a lower cost than in Indian realty hotspots.
However, there are certain things that you need to take care of before buying overseas properties.
(a) Keep a track of political and economic risk associated with investing in the country. Although many of the European countries are most sought after for real estate investment, it is hard to bank on them in this time of ongoing financial crisis.
(b) Take into account all the costs related to buying a property. There are both direct and indirect costs associated with property buying. Direct cost includes the purchase cost while indirect costs would include transfer fee, registration fee and stamp charges.
(c) The best way to buy a property abroad is to buy it through a company. For this, you need to have a company registered in India and you can set up a subsidiary company abroad for specified business purposes. Then you can buy a property in that country out of the funds sent to the subsidiary company.
While setting up the subsidiary company, as per the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), capital must not exceed 400 percent of the net worth of the Indian company. You can take advantage of the lower interest rates prevailing in the country as you can buy a property partly out of fund from your subsidiary company and partly through taking a loan from foreign lenders through leveraging borrowing against property.
(d) If you are buying a property to earn rental income, then be sure that the rental income does not get taxed in both the foreign nation and in India. India has tax treaties with many nations and you need to know precisely whether your rent would be taxed in both the countries. Taxation norms differ in case of individuals and corporates.
(e) In case you sell off the property you have bought abroad, there are chances that you would be required to pay capital gains tax in that country. In a worse case scenario, you may have to pay capital gains tax in both the countries – the foreign nation and also in India. To avoid such circumstances, you need to go through tax treaties between the two countries. Some countries like Mauritius, Singapore and Cyprus do not levy capital gains tax and they can be good options to buy a property.
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Why and how do NRIs invest in Indian real estate?
