[JMBroad]

From what I can gather;

Repatriation of sale proceeds

In the event of sale of immovable property other than agricultural land/ farm house/ plantation property in India by NRI/PIO, the authorised dealer will allow repatriation of sale proceeds outside India provided;

i) the immovable property was acquired by the seller in accordance with the provisions of the foreign exchange law in force at the time of acquisition by him or the provisions of FEMA Regulations;

ii) the amount to be repatriated does not exceed (a) the amount paid for acquisition of the immovable property in foreign exchange received through normal banking channels or out of funds held in Foreign Currency Non- Resident Account or (b) the foreign currency equivalent as on the date of payment, of the amount paid where such payment was made from the funds held in Non-Resident External account for acquisition of the property.

iii) In the case of residential property, the repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two such properties.

iv) In the case of sale of immovable property purchased out of Rupee funds, ADs may allow the facility of repatriation of funds out of balances held by NRIs/PIO in their Non-resident Rupee (NRO) accounts upto US$ 1 mio per calendar year, provided that the property has been held for a period not less than 10 years or for a combined period of 10 years partly as property and as sale proceeds in NRO account and subject to production of undertaking by the remitter and a certificate from the Chartered Accountant in the formats prescribed by the CBDT.

Everything seems to be focused only towards NRI's and PIO's mainly because according to this legislation, only NRI's and PIO's are allowed to buy immovable property in India (and even then excluding agricultural land/ farm house/ plantation property).

This is the only official information I was sent but I can't validate the age of the document or it's relevance to buying property in India in 2007 and beyond.