How to Buy a Plot in Bangalore Without Regrets: Seven Checks in Order
A builder's flat comes with most of the legal groundwork done. Land in or around Bangalore does not, and a buyer inherits whatever gaps the layout, the conversion or the title may hide. The sections below pose seven questions in the order a careful buyer should ask them.
Who Cleared the Layout?
A residential layout gets its sanction from one planning authority, the one with jurisdiction over that land, so naming it is the first job. Within city limits, five corporations under the GBA (the Greater Bengaluru Authority, successor to the BBMP since September 2025) deal with khata, tax and building plans. The BDA, the Bangalore Development Authority, develops layouts of its own and has cleared many private ones too.
Beyond the city, BMRDA operates through local planning authorities, for instance at Kanakapura, Nelamangala, Hoskote and Anekal. BIAAPA covers villages around the airport, while BMICAPA handles the Bidadi end of the Mysore corridor.
A gram panchayat keeps records and collects tax, yet clears no layouts. An advertisement that says "BMRDA approved" is not evidence. Get a copy of the sanctioned plan, note the approval number and date, and phone the issuing office to verify them.
Developers release layouts in phases as roads and drains are completed, hence the release order. If the authority has held a plot number back, leave it alone.
Has the Land Been Converted?
House sites can be sold from agricultural land only once it has been converted. Section 95 of the 1964 Land Revenue Act of Karnataka lets the Deputy Commissioner grant it. The order's survey numbers and extent must be the ones that appear in the layout plan and the deed of sale.
For land within an approved master plan, a new route was created in September 2025. When its use suits the zoning, conversion is done by the planning authority as part of approving the layout. Anywhere else the Deputy Commissioner decides. The RTC, which many call the pahani, should read as converted under either route.
Zoning is a separate test. An approved layout cannot be placed in green belt or other agricultural zones, nor in valleys, tanks or buffer areas, and a "farm plot" stays farmland whatever the brochure claims.
Is the Layout Registered with RERA?
The 2016 RERA Act treats a plotted layout as a real estate project. Section 3 requires registration before any advertising or sale. Land up to 500 sq m, or a layout of at most eight units, is exempt, though very few developer layouts are so small.
The Karnataka RERA portal lists the promoter, the approved plan, the completion date, the survey numbers, the plot count, quarterly updates and complaints. Compare the survey numbers there with the conversion order and layout plan. Booking money should wait until a registration number exists.
Is the Title Clean?
A lawyer should follow ownership from the first recorded holder to the present seller. Required are the mother deed and all that followed it, namely sales, partitions, gifts, releases and wills. Where possible an encumbrance certificate should span 30 years. RTC and mutation extracts for each survey number over those years are also needed, with current tax receipts and any joint development agreement or power of attorney.
Every shareholder's consent should be visible in the original landowners' family tree. Land granted by the state to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe members poses a hazard of its own. A 1978 Karnataka law prohibits its transfer without government permission, and a sale made without it can be undone years later. The grant history is in the revenue records.
Many older articles still warn about Land Reforms Act provisions numbered 79A and 79B, which used to stop numerous people buying farmland. They were removed in 2020, though a family's agricultural holding is still capped and building still requires conversion.
Which Khata Does It Have?
In the tax register of the local body, each property has an entry called a khata. It is no proof of title, but it underpins registrations, loans and building plans. The city corporations issue an e-khata, needed for registration from October 2024, which files the property in the A register or the B register.
On e-Swathu, panchayats show converted plots in approved layouts under Forms 9 and 11A, and municipal councils issue a khata of their own. If the city lists the property in its B register, or a panchayat gives it Form 11B, the layout or conversion lacks approval. Banks then hold back and building plans stall, so a lower price is the cost of that risk and not a bargain.
What Does the Ground Say?
Walk the site with the approved plan and a licensed surveyor, who measures the plot against it. Confirm that the road in front is as wide as drawn and that a public approach road reaches the layout. Parks and civic amenity spaces must be open as shown, and drainage plus water, sewer and power lines must really be in the ground.
Note the plot's distance from storm water drains, lake edges and high-tension lines, because every one of them has a no-build buffer. Confirm the survey number is free of any notification to acquire land for a road, railway or industrial area. Water needs a look as well, meaning where it comes from, what a borewell yields and what the local body plans to supply.
Buildings near the airport and other airfields face height limits, and setbacks eat into corner plots and plots next to a drain. Set aside a day or two for these checks.
What Will It Really Cost?
The state charges stamp duty of 5% above Rs. 45 Lakhs, which grows to 5.6% when cess and surcharge are added, and registration costs a further 2%. Consider a plot priced at Rs. 80 Lakhs: duty of Rs. 4.48 Lakhs plus registration of Rs. 1.6 Lakhs makes Rs. 6.08 Lakhs. Whichever is higher, sale value or guidance value, is what the calculation uses.
A plot gets a smaller bank loan than a flat does, and lenders typically want a house built within a set period. The lender's legal and technical report gives a useful second opinion. A chosen loan amount can be run through the EMI calculator to see the instalment and the cash needed at the start.
Money should travel by bank transfer to the name on the agreement. The sale deed should name the price and the plot number and give measurements, boundaries and survey numbers. After registration, the khata is moved so that tax is paid by the new owner.
Where These Questions Matter Most
On the city fringe lie most plots: the Devanahalli and airport belt, the Hoskote side and Sarjapur Road, and the roads to Mysore and Kanakapura. A different authority governs each, so the issuing office changes but the order of the questions does not.
Finish all seven before any booking amount changes hands, and the common causes of dispute over plots are covered. Hiring a lawyer for property and a surveyor early costs little compared with the land.
