I am not a legal expert. But just got my building completed last year. Completion certificate is required for getting power and water connections, as well as assessment by Chennai corporation. I am not sure how the power connection has already been obtained. Home loans by banks are usually decided when the plot is verified as legal, without any encumberances, and the building plan is approved. No one can wait till completion to buy / sell the apartment. The issue is not as much with loans, as it is with the legality of the property itself. Long story short, it is not a good idea to buy a flat without the CMDA completion certificate. For that matter there are builders who do unauthorized things after the certificate is obtained (E.g. extra balconies, service areas, converting carparks to rooms or vice versa, converting open terraces into rooms etc.). We need to be careful about all that.I am not a legal expert. But just got my building completed last year. Completion certificate is required for getting power and water connections, as well as assessment by Chennai corporation. I am not sure how the power connection has already been obtained. Home loans by banks are usually decided when the plot is verified as legal, without any encumberances, and the building plan is approved. No one can wait till completion to buy / sell the apartment. The issue is not as much with loans, as it is with the legality of the property itself. Long story short, it is not a good idea to buy a flat without the CMDA completion certificate. For that matter there are builders who do unauthorized things after the certificate is obtained (E.g. extra balconies, service areas, converting carparks to rooms or vice versa, converting open terraces into rooms etc.). We need to be careful about all that.