What this page is. A running record of changes to the law that affect buying, selling, renting or financing property in India — central and state — with the date each one took effect and the source it comes from.
It exists because when a law changes, almost everything written about it online becomes wrong on the same day, and stays wrong for months. This page is where the correction lives. It is reviewed and updated monthly.
Entries below start from July 2024 rather than from today, because several changes still in force have not been widely picked up. Where a figure could not be confirmed from an official source, the entry says so instead of guessing.
Buying from an NRI will no longer require the buyer to hold a TAN
What changes: a resident individual or HUF buying immovable property from a non-resident currently has to obtain a TAN before deducting tax. The Finance Act 2026 removes that requirement.
Until then: the TAN is still required. If you are closing such a purchase in September 2026, the old position applies to you.
What does not change: the deduction itself. Buying from a non-resident still means withholding at the full applicable rate on the whole consideration unless the seller obtains a certificate, with no ₹50 lakh threshold.
Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2026, amending section 397(1)(c) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
The Income-tax Act, 1961 was replaced by the Income-tax Act, 2025
What changed: every section number you have ever seen quoted for property tax. The 1% TDS on property is now section 393(1), not 194-IA. The non-resident provision is 393(2), not 195. Reinvestment relief in a house is section 82, not 54. Capital gains bonds are section 85, not 54EC. Relief under the old 54F is section 86. The long-term rate sits in section 197, not 112. Form 26QB has been replaced by Form 141, due within 30 days from the end of the month of deduction.
What did not change: the rates, the thresholds and the conditions. The Income Tax Department has confirmed these were carried over as they were. Only the numbering moved.
Which Act applies to you: a transaction completed on or before 31 March 2026 remains under the 1961 Act and still uses Form 26QB. One completed on or after 1 April 2026 is under the 2025 Act.
A warning: the Income Tax Department’s own website is not internally consistent on this. Its tax tutorial pages still describe Section 194-IA and Form 26QB for assessment year 2026-27 — which is financial year 2025-26, and correct for that period — while its e-filing portal describes section 393(1) and Form 141 for transactions from 1 April 2026. Both are right about different periods. Check which period your transaction falls in before filing anything.
Income-tax Act, 2025 (Act 30 of 2025), in force 1 April 2026 per PIB, 1 April 2026. Form 141 and the transition rule: Income Tax Department e-filing portal, TDS Compliance. Full explanation.
Prepayment charges banned on floating-rate home loans to individuals
What changed: for any loan sanctioned or renewed on or after this date, a lender may not levy prepayment or foreclosure charges on a floating-rate loan to an individual for a purpose other than business. A home loan for your own residence qualifies.
Why it is stronger than the old rule: it applies irrespective of the source of funds, so a balance transfer to another lender counts; there is no minimum lock-in; and it covers NBFCs and housing finance companies, not only banks — which is where the old carve-outs lived.
Not covered: fixed-rate loans. For those, charges follow the lender’s approved policy, must be based on the amount prepaid, and must have been disclosed in the sanction letter, the loan agreement and the Key Facts Statement.
Reserve Bank of India (Pre-payment Charges on Loans) Directions, 2025, dated 2 July 2025, applicable to loans sanctioned or renewed from 1 January 2026.
Switching from floating to fixed rate became the lender’s option, not your right
What changed: the wording of the RBI direction was amended from lenders shall provide the option to switch, to lenders may, at their option, provide a choice to switch.
What it means: if you took a floating-rate loan expecting to be able to convert it to fixed later, that is no longer an entitlement. Ask before you sign, and get the answer in the sanction letter.
Still required: all charges for such a switch must be transparently disclosed in the sanction letter and at the time of any revision.
Reserve Bank of India (Interest Rate on Advances) (Amendment) Directions, 2025, dated 29 September 2025, effective 1 October 2025.
Women’s stamp duty concession raised from ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore
What changed: the UP Cabinet approved a 1% stamp duty concession for a woman buyer on property valued up to ₹1 crore — 6% instead of 7%. The previous concession applied only up to ₹10 lakh of value and was worth a maximum of ₹10,000.
The trap: it is a cliff, not a taper. At ₹1,00,00,000 the duty is ₹6,00,000. At ₹1,00,00,001 it is ₹7,00,001 — crossing the line re-rates the entire value, not just the excess. Add-ons on a cost sheet routinely push a deal over it.
Note: the department’s own static fee-table PDF still shows the superseded ₹10 lakh rule. Its live calculator reflects the current position. Most commercial sites are still copying the PDF.
Verified against the UP Stamp and Registration Department’s official fee calculator, 5 September 2026. Cabinet decision reported by Prasar Bharati, 23 July 2025.
GST rates restructured; cement cut from 28% to 18%
What changed: the 56th GST Council moved to a two-rate structure — a standard 18% and a merit 5% — with revised rates effective from this date. For construction the notable move was on materials: cement from 28% to 18%, and sand-lime bricks and stone blocks from 12% to 5%.
What it means for a buyer: because a developer under the 1% / 5% residential scheme gets no input tax credit, a cut in the tax on cement is a genuine reduction in their cost rather than a credit. Whether it reaches the price is a commercial question, not a legal one.
Not confirmed: we could not open Notification 15/2025-Central Tax (Rate) directly to verify that the residential construction service entries were left untouched. Every indication is that 1% and 5% are unchanged, but this entry does not assert it.
56th GST Council press release, 3 September 2025; PIB factsheet on GST Reforms 2025. Rate changes given effect by Notifications 15/2025 and 16/2025-Central Tax (Rate), both 17 September 2025.
Digital e-stamping introduced — but no change to the rates
What changed: the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2025 introduced digital e-stamp, recognised electronic signatures under the Information Technology Act 2000, and enabled electronic payment of stamp duty.
What did not change: Article 20 of the Schedule. Conveyance remains at 5%, and the concessional first-sale slabs for apartments — 2% up to ₹20 lakh and 3% between ₹20 lakh and ₹45 lakh — are untouched. Those slabs apply only to the first sale of a flat; a resale is at 5% at any value, a distinction commercial sites routinely blur.
Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Karnataka Act 30 of 2025), assented 5 April 2025, gazetted 7 April 2025.
The ₹50 lakh TDS threshold is now tested on the aggregate, not per person
What changed: the threshold is measured against the total paid by all buyers to all sellers, not each individual leg.
What it closed: a ₹90 lakh flat bought by two buyers from two sellers used to split into four legs of ₹22.5 lakh, each below the threshold, with no tax deducted at all. That no longer works.
Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, effective 1 October 2024; confirmed by the Income Tax Department’s guidance on TDS on purchase of immovable property.
Key Facts Statement made mandatory — undisclosed loan charges prohibited
What changed: every retail term loan, home loans included, from banks, NBFCs and housing finance companies, must come with a Key Facts Statement carrying an all-in Annual Percentage Rate. The APR includes interest and all other charges, and third-party costs recovered through the lender — insurance, legal fees — form part of it and must be shown separately with receipts provided.
The operative rule: any fee or charge not mentioned in the KFS cannot be charged at any stage during the term of the loan without your explicit consent. The statement is also valid for at least three working days, and the lender is bound by its terms if you accept within that window.
RBI circular on Key Facts Statement for Loans and Advances, 15 April 2024, applicable to loans sanctioned from 1 October 2024.
Long-term capital gains on property moved to 12.5% without indexation
What changed: the long-term rate on land and buildings became 12.5% computed without indexation, replacing 20% with indexation.
The grandfathering: for property acquired before 23 July 2024 by a resident individual or HUF, the tax is computed both ways and the excess is ignored — so you pay the lower of the two. It is a cap on tax, not an election, which means it cannot be used to create a larger indexed loss to carry forward. It is not available to non-residents, companies or firms, or to any property acquired on or after that date.
Unchanged: the 24-month holding period that makes a gain long-term, and the ₹50 lakh cap on capital gains bonds.
Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, effective 23 July 2024. Now carried into section 197 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Property capital gains calculator.
How this page is maintained. Reviewed monthly. Every entry carries the date the change took effect and the instrument it comes from. Where something could not be confirmed from an official source, the entry says so rather than filling the gap with a plausible figure.
If an entry here is wrong or out of date, write in and it will be corrected publicly, with the correction dated. A broken number is worse than no number.
Mithun Srivastava works at Info Edge (India) Limited. This is a personal site. The views here are his own, no employer data is used anywhere on it, and nothing here is an official communication of any company. This page is educational and is not legal or tax advice — verify with the issuing authority before you act.