The worst outcome in this business is a client who buys land and then discovers what it will let them build. Almost everything below can be checked before money moves, and almost none of it is checked as thoroughly as it should be.
Title and documentation
- Ownership traced back through the chain of title, verified by an advocate — not a summary supplied by the seller
- Encumbrance certificate for the relevant period
- Khata or equivalent revenue record in the seller's name
- Land classification and conversion status, if it was agricultural
- Approved layout status, where the plot is part of a layout
- Property tax paid to date, with receipts
What decides your building
- Which authority governs the plot — it is not always the obvious one
- Coverage, FAR, setbacks and permissible height for this plot size and road width
- Road width as actually measured, not as described
- Any proposed road widening or alignment affecting the plot
- Restrictions from proximity to a water body, railway, airport or high-tension line
The physical site
- Access: can a concrete mixer and a material lorry reach it today?
- Levels and slope across the plot, and what earthwork they imply
- Soil condition — a test is inexpensive relative to a foundation redesign
- Water: source, and what neighbours report about depth and quality
- Power availability and the distance to the nearest line
- Drainage: where water goes in heavy rain, ideally observed rather than described
- Neighbouring construction, existing party walls and mature trees
Walk it twice, at different times
Morning and late afternoon, and if you can, once after rain. Sun path, noise, traffic, smell and how water behaves are all invisible in a single midday visit and impossible to change afterwards.
Get an opinion before you commit
A short paid site appraisal before purchase costs a fraction of one per cent of the land price and regularly saves multiples of it. We offer this under real estate advisory, and we would rather tell you not to buy a plot than design a compromised house on it.
