Buying a flat in Maharashtra: the whole journey, from budget to society membership

Buying a flat in Maharashtra is not one decision. It is about nine, spread over two to four years, and most of the expensive mistakes happen because a buyer met them out of order: the agreement signed before the title was read, the booking amount paid before the registration was checked, the possession letter signed before the snag list. This guide puts the journey in the order it actually arrives, says what each stage decides, and links the article on this blog that walks through it. Keep it open in a tab. It is a map, not a lecture.

Priya and Arjun's nine tabs#

Priya and Arjun (illustrative, as our stories always are) began their search for a first 2BHK in Pune the way careful people do: with a spreadsheet. By the second weekend it had nine tabs, one per stage below, and a rule they had written on the first tab in capitals: no money moves until tabs three, four and five are green. It cost them a project they liked, whose registration turned out to have lapsed a year earlier, and it saved them the project's problems. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.

The journey at a glance#

An analogy: a train whose doors lock behind you#

Think of the purchase as a train journey in which some doors lock once you pass them. Before the booking amount, every door is open: walking away costs a few weekends. After the booking amount, leaving costs money, under rules set out in your allotment letter. After the registered agreement, you are a party to a contract, and your protection becomes the contract and the law rather than your freedom to leave. The checks in stages three to five belong before the first door, because that is the last point at which a bad answer costs you nothing.

1. Budget: the price is not the cost#

The agreement value is the largest number and the least complete one. Stamp duty is charged on the higher of the agreement value and the government's ready reckoner valuation, and in Pune, Thane and Nagpur it comes to 7 percent once the metro cess and local body tax are added; stamp duty and registration charges sets out the rates city by city. An under-construction flat adds GST at 5 percent, or 1 percent in the affordable category, while a flat with an occupancy certificate carries none. Then comes the loan: what the bank will lend against the property's value, and how disbursement works on a building that is not finished, both covered in the home loan on an under-construction flat. If you are deciding whether to buy at all, rent or buy in Mumbai and Pune does that arithmetic, and booking amount to registration shows when each rupee actually leaves your account.

2. Shortlist: decide the kind of purchase first#

Most buyers shortlist projects. It works better to shortlist the kind of purchase first, because each kind carries different risks. A finished flat removes construction risk and costs more; an under-construction one is cheaper and asks you to underwrite the years in between, which under-construction versus ready-to-move and new launch versus nearly ready price out. A resale flat swaps a builder for a seller, as resale versus new booking explains, and a lottery flat swaps a seller for a waiting list, as MHADA lottery versus open market shows. For market context, Mumbai recorded 80,221 property registrations in the first half of 2026, up 6 percent on a year earlier (Knight Frank India, from IGR data), and what those registration numbers say explains how to read them. If you are watching a district rather than a project, ReraGenie's district alerts email every new MahaRERA registration in the districts you choose, free during the pilot beta.

3. The project on MahaRERA#

Every project above RERA's thresholds must be registered before it is advertised, marketed or sold, and its filing is public. Start with how to check a project on the MahaRERA portal, then read the status properly, because registration is not a permanent state.

A quarter of the register reads Lapsed. That does not always mean abandoned, and lapsed, revoked, deregistered explains what each status does and does not tell you. Two traps sit around the registration number itself: an advertisement whose QR code leads somewhere other than the tower being sold, covered in the QR code on every ad, and the phase shuffle, covered in phase-wise registrations and other listing tricks. You can look up any project's filing, laid out in plain sections, on ReraGenie's free project pages.

4. The promoter behind the project#

A project is one registration; the promoter usually has several, and their past is the best evidence you will get about your future. How to check a builder's track record shows how to read the promoter's other registrations and how they ended, and checking a builder's litigation and complaint history covers the cases filed against them. If a broker is involved, confirm they are registered too, using the MahaRERA agent check.

5. Land and permissions#

This is the stage buyers skip most often and regret most expensively. The 12 documents to check is the full list. Three deserve particular attention. The title, including any charge a lender holds over the land, which CERSAI and the title report and the 7/12 extract teach you to read. The permissions, in the order they are granted, set out in from application to commencement certificate. And the plan itself, which how to read a sanctioned plan makes legible to a non-architect.

6. Booking and the agreement#

The booking amount buys an allotment, and the allotment letter sets the terms on which you can still leave. Then comes the document that governs everything after it: the registered agreement for sale. MahaRERA prescribes a model, and the 10 clauses to check before signing shows where builders depart from it. Check that the agreement states the RERA carpet area, explained in carpet, built-up and super built-up, and that parking, floor rise and payment terms are written rather than promised, using the parking rules, floor rise and PLC and construction-linked versus other payment plans. Your money should go to the project's designated account, which the 70 percent rule and the three bank accounts explain.

7. Paying and registering#

Registration day itself is short if the paperwork is ready; registration day at the sub-registrar lists what to carry, and Index II is the one-page proof you receive afterwards. If the price is Rs 50 lakh or more, the buyer deducts TDS and deposits it, which TDS on your flat purchase walks through. Loan disbursements then follow construction stages, and pre-EMI or full EMI prices the years in between.

8. The construction years#

From here the promoter reports to MahaRERA every quarter, and those filings are the most honest progress report you will get. Quarterly progress reports: due dates and reading the filings like an analyst show what to look for, and Form 1, 2 and 3 follows the money. If the date slips, your rights run from the date in your agreement, as RERA rules for delayed possession and computing delay interest explain. If you need the regulator, filing a MahaRERA complaint is a process a buyer can run without a lawyer, and the forum is working through its docket: MahaRERA disposed of 6,945 complaints in 2025, 81 percent more than the 3,824 it disposed of in 2024 (MahaRERA figures released on 5 January 2026). If you need to leave instead, cancelling under Circular 50/2025 sets out the refund route.

9. Possession and after#

Do not take the keys on the first visit. The pre-possession inspection checklist is the walk-through, and the occupancy certificate is the document that decides whether the building may be lived in at all, as OC versus CC explains. If the flat is smaller than the agreement says, carpet area shortfall covers the refund. After the keys, the building becomes yours to run collectively: the first twelve months covers the society, deemed conveyance moves the land into its name if the builder will not, and maintenance charges sets out what the society may lawfully collect. Finally, decide who inherits the flat, which is not what a nomination does, as nomination is not a will explains.

What the report does with stages three to five#

Stages three to five are where a buyer reads public filings and most buyers run out of patience. The Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report does that reading for one project and sets the answers out with their filing dates: the red flags and the checks that came back clear, the promoter's other registrations and how each ended, the possession story from the first promised date to the current one, and the land and title answered as five questions, including whether the land is mortgaged and what exceptions the legal title report attaches to its conclusion. It ends with what to verify before you book. The free project page shows the filing itself; the report is the reading of it.

The one-line summary#

Buying a flat in Maharashtra is nine decisions in a fixed order: set the true budget, choose the kind of purchase, then check the project, the promoter and the land before any money moves, and let the registered agreement, not the brochure, define what you are owed.