Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ - Land and Location Advisory

Converting agricultural land to industrial use in Tamil Nadu requires obtaining non-agricultural (NA) status, the correct industrial zoning, and approvals from DTCP/CMDA and other relevant authorities, typically taking around 9 months. Since the process is time-consuming and costly, zoning and conversion approvals should be pursued alongside land acquisition.

Converting agricultural land to industrial use in Tamil Nadu requires obtaining non-agricultural (NA) status, the correct industrial zoning, and approvals from DTCP/CMDA and other relevant authorities, typically taking around 9 months. Since the process is time-consuming and costly, zoning and conversion approvals should be pursued alongside land acquisition. 

 

Patta land confirms private possession, government land is generally leased rather than sold (such as in SIPCOT/SIDCO), and freehold industrial land provides complete private ownership with the greatest long-term investment value. AWH prefers freehold land because land appreciates over time, while buildings depreciate. 

SIPCOT/SIDCO estates provide pre-serviced, industry-zoned leasehold land with infrastructure and approvals already in place, while private agricultural land offers freehold ownership at lower prices but requires the buyer to handle title verification, zoning, conversion, and infrastructure. The choice is essentially between lower risk with higher cost and lower cost with higher development risk.

Industrial land due diligence requires verifying Sub-Registrar records (title deeds, EC, mortgages, POA), Revenue Department records (Patta, Chitta, Adangal, FMB, Village Map, tax receipts, Legal Heir Certificate), and the owner’s PAN/GST documents. Together, these records confirm ownership, possession, legal status, and development suitability before purchase.

Yes. Industrial land must be rectangular to achieve maximum FSI and ground coverage, and sheds can only be built in a rectangular shape. The impact is measurable: an odd-shaped acre yields just 18,000 sqft of ground coverage against 30,000 sqft built on a rectangular acre. AWH deals only in rectangular, clear-title industrial land.

Industrial land with highway or main-road frontage commands a significant price premium due to better connectivity, visibility, and access for heavy vehicles. Road width and frontage are key evaluation factors, as they directly influence land value, logistics efficiency, and development potential. 

Land aggregation combines multiple small parcels into a single gap-free industrial plot using a combined FMB sketch to identify restrictions such as government land, canals, water bodies, or HT lines. Eliminating ownership gaps enables large-scale industrial development and simplifies future transfer and project execution.

Land filling can significantly increase the effective cost of an industrial plot, making road-level, rectangular land far more economical than cheaper plots requiring extensive filling and conversion. Since turnkey construction costs exclude land filling, choosing a site that needs minimal filling and no conversion helps reduce overall project costs. 

A location advisory consultant answers the “where to buy” question by identifying where tenant demand actually exists. CIPD acquires land in locations advised by AWH precisely because AWH holds the leasing demand intelligence needed for immediate occupancy. For built-to-suit projects, the right property consultant is the key to finding the correct end-user and matching the land’s location to that tenant.

Yes. In a Joint Development the landlord contributes only the land — valued upfront — while the developer funds construction, and the two share the end product by revenue or area at a percentage fixed in advance. Under CIPD’s joint development contracts, landowners receive a percentage of the developed building while CIPD covers construction and development costs in exchange for a portion of the land.

After the approval drawings are submitted for DTCP/CMDA approval, the first DTCP inspection falls around 45–60 days. Preparing the technical and approval drawings themselves takes roughly 30–45 days beforehand. Conversion of land into an industrial zone is a separate and far longer track — approximately a 9-month process.

Road access is the biggest price driver in Chennai industrial land, with Ambattur SIPCOT ~Rs 54 cr/acre vs ~27 cr off-road, Nerkundram–Koyambedu ~90 vs ~36, Poonamallee ~15 vs ~7.5, Sriperumbudur SIPCOT ~3.5 vs ~2.25, Sri City–Tada ~1.3 vs ~1, and Oragadam Rs 1.75–2.5 cr vs Rs 1.25–1.75 cr.

40-foot internal roads, adequate frontage, and unrestricted access improve visibility and approvals, while landlocked or gap-affected parcels lose value and development potential.

Litigation, charges and government dues are surfaced through the Encumbrance Certificate, while family and succession disputes are cleared by a competent lawyer’s title due diligence. The lawyer verifies sale, settlement and partition deeds, inheritance and succession records, and legal heir certificates. Layered on top are registrar and company searches for outstanding dues, land-ceiling and government-department searches, and a local enquiry with neighbours about any loans, agreements, disputes or ownership claims on the parcel. Finally, a public notice must be placed in a prominent English and a Tamil newspaper 21 days before registration, to bring competing claims into the open before money moves.

Stamp duty on an industrial land sale deed in Tamil Nadu is 7%, with a registration fee of 2% — both computed on the guideline value. For most internal family transfers the fee is capped at Rs 25,000 plus Rs 10,000 per share. Pre-registration approval of the sale deed by the SRO is advisable. In AWH’s land-acquisition cost table, on a Rs 1.1 cr/acre parcel these on-costs stack up as commission 2% + stamp duty and registration 7% + legal and miscellaneous 1% — about 10%, or Rs 11 lakh per acre — plus roughly Rs 6.5 lakh of conversion cost, taking the all-in acquisition cost to about Rs 1.375 cr/acre.

Foreign entities can set up operations inside a Free Trade Zone without having to register as an Indian company, and can showcase their products there without partnering with an Indian registered company. That is an operating right within the zone, not a route to owning land: FTZ presence and outright acquisition of Chennai industrial land are separate matters.

Due diligence timing scales with the size of the deal rather than a fixed institutional clock. Site analysis — the combined FMB sketch, contour study and soil and water tests — takes roughly 0–15 days depending on the size of the land, and the legal title check depends on the lawyer and the size of the parcel. For an institutional buyer, CIPD structures each project as an SPV and completes thorough legal due diligence through CRC before acquisition, covering title, EC, revenue records, boundary and extent survey, and the 21-day public notice. AWH’s purchase-agency fee — 2% of property value up to Rs 30 crore, 1% above — falls due at registration or possession, whichever is earlier.

Soil and water tests are conducted on site, alongside a contour survey measuring levels against the road and flooding levels. Soil testing is carried out by the civil engineer at about Rs 20,000 per pit for every 10,000 sqft — so a 10,000–25,000 sqft plot needs four pits. The contour study is run by surveyors, and together these site-analysis steps take roughly 0–15 days depending on the size of the land. For water, the approach is a borewell to start with, followed by water testing. A computer surveyor’s laser survey with FMB superimposition costs about Rs 15,000 for up to five acres.

Power availability is a make-or-break suitability factor, because factories operate huge machinery and need a high-tension connection. An HT connection means supply above 11 kV — effectively mandatory above roughly 112 kW / 150 HP — and is sanctioned by TANGEDCO. Securing it requires a large EB security deposit of about Rs 600–900 per kVA plus consumer-side infrastructure: transformer yard, HT panel and earthing. Best case runs 3–4 months, stretching to 6–12 months where a new line or substation must be built. A parcel close to an existing HT line or substation is therefore materially cheaper and faster to make factory-ready — which is why HT lines are a standard land-attribute check.

Rail, corridor and port access lift industrial land demand and therefore price. Site selection begins with how raw material arrives — by road, rail, air or seaport — and the largest factories sit where multiple modes meet, with rail, highway and water loading and unloading facilities. Industrial parks stress that connectivity to highways and prime corridors is critical, and a dry port or ICD earns its premium because it is directly connected by road or rail to a seaport. In Chennai, the North Chennai clusters — Red Hills, Periyapalayam, up to Sri City-Tada — are demand centres catering to railroad movement from North India and the Chennai port, while Madhavaram’s value is reinforced by imminent Metro rail connectivity.

Yes. CIPD structures each project as a Special Purpose Vehicle, giving investors clear ownership, and raises capital from ultra high net worth individuals and family offices through equity shares and convertible debentures (CCDs). Fund 1 was raised with six investors, Fund 2 with four. Fractional ownership works the same way — shares in an SPV that owns that one asset.

Yes. CIPD structures each project as a Special Purpose Vehicle, giving investors clear ownership, and raises capital from ultra high net worth individuals and family offices through equity shares and convertible debentures (CCDs). Fund 1 was raised with six investors, Fund 2 with four. Fractional owner

Growth corridors carry the forward appreciation; mature locations have largely already appreciated — and often left industrial use behind. Industrial land and warehouses are pegged at 10%+ RoI with a 25%+ appreciation premium, well ahead of residential (5–8%), retail (8–10%) and commercial office (10–12%). Madhavaram is the reference case for a mature location: land rose from Rs 1 crore per acre in 2006 to Rs 10 crore per acre by 2021, and over twenty years from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 40 crore per acre — roughly 80x. That very appreciation is what made Madhavaram unviable for industrial development today, pushing warehousing out to cheaper corridors. Newer areas are where the upside remains: rents there stay proportionate to land and construction costs, so build-and-lease still works, while older city belts convert to residential and lose industrial viability. CIPD’s model follows that logic — buy in emerging locations below market, add value through clearances and zoning, and capture the growth. In AWH’s words, it is time to identify the next Madhavaram.

Normal FSI for industrial buildings is 0.5 to 0.75 for single-level structures, and the achievable FSI is what fixes the future built-up area. FSI is one of the core land attributes recorded at shortlisting, alongside cost per sq ft on FSI, because it drives project viability — a land price is only meaningful once divided across the buildable area it supports. As a planning rule of thumb, roughly 25,000 sqft is buildable per acre. AWH’s return model deliberately favours maximum land and minimum building at 0.5 FSI, so the owner holds freehold land outright rather than a shared undivided share.

Zoning is verified at the competent authority during due diligence, before any commitment. The check confirms the parcel’s zoning and conversion status and whether the land is suitable for the intended use. Approval diligence is then done with the planning authority to check planning permits and plan sanctions and establish that the property can be put to that intended use, alongside confirming the land’s NA (non-agricultural) status. Where the zone is wrong, the fix is a change of zoning to suit warehousing, industry or multi-use, handled as a wet/dry CMDA or DTCP approval — a roughly 9-month process, so it must be priced into the deal from the outset.

Sriperumbudur and Oragadam price far below Chennai’s core industrial zones. Sriperumbudur sells at about Rs 3 cr/acre on the main road and Rs 2 cr off it; Oragadam at Rs 1.75–2.5 cr on-road and Rs 1.25–1.75 cr off-road. Chennai’s near-city zones are multiples of that — Madhavaram at Rs 8–10 cr/acre, Maraimalai Nagar at Rs 15 cr — and the inner-city clusters are in a different league again: Parrys ~Rs 90 cr/acre on-road (~70 off), Nerkundram-Koyambedu ~90 (~36) and Ambattur SIPCOT ~54 (~27). Within the SIPCOT belt itself, Sriperumbudur/Mambakkam runs ~Rs 3.5 cr/acre on-road (~2.25 off) and Irungattukottai ~5 (~2.5), while the outer belts are cheaper still — Gummidipoondi SIPCOT ~1.9 (~1.15) and Sri City-Tada ~1.3 (~1). Madhavaram’s climb to around Rs 10 cr/acre has made it unviable for industrial development, which is exactly what pushes new warehousing demand towards Sriperumbudur, Oragadam and the lower-cost outer corridors.

A lawyer’s title search report is the highest-value safeguard in an industrial land deal, because 8 out of 10 lands fail in title due diligence. The lawyer verifies sale and settlement deeds, inheritance and succession records, and legal heir certificates. A good lawyer is a wise investment to ensure hard-earned money is not wasted.

Yes. In government industrial parks (SIPCOT/SIDCO), land is leased out long term on a single payment — mostly 99 years, a perpetual lease — with outright sale rare, and transfer is possible only with an NOC from the concerned department. Infrastructure and most NOCs and plan sanctions are provided by the government, making these parks ideal for long term.

Wet or dry classification is established from the revenue records, and wet land is then cleared through a dedicated NOC. The Settlement or “A” register records the land type, wet or dry, while the Chitta and Adangal from the VAO, plus the Village map, reveal the crop activity, boundaries and any water bodies on or adjoining the plot; canals and water bodies inside or beside a parcel are flagged as gaps that could impose development restrictions. Where the land is wet, the Wetland NOC is issued by the Collector together with NOCs from agriculture, BDO, DTCP, revenue, RDO and DRO. Zoning of such land is then handled as a wet/dry CMDA or DTCP approval.

Compound walls and internal roads are development cost, not land price. Standard turnkey construction costing already includes the compound wall, common-area development, GST and plan sanction costs — but excludes land filling. Grade A specification calls for a 2.5–3 m concrete compound wall with wire mesh, and internal roads of RCC in loading areas with paver blocks elsewhere.

Yes — who handles and bears conversion is a negotiable deal term. AWH closes land deals through a formal negotiation checklist and structures each transaction deliberately for finance and taxation, so a seller’s obligation to obtain or assist with conversion approvals can be written into the agreement. In practice AWH and CIPD usually take conversion on themselves: the group is into conversions, approvals and plan sanctions, and runs zoning approvals in parallel with acquisition to cut delay and holding cost. The cleaner outcome is to buy land that needs no conversion or filling at all, since conversion is a roughly 9-month process with a heavy interest cost attached.

Yes — who handles and bears conversion is a negotiable deal term. AWH closes land deals through a formal negotiation checklist and structures each transaction deliberately for finance and taxation, so a seller’s obligation to obtain or assist with conversion approvals can be written into the agreement. In practice AWH and CIPD usually take conversion on themselves: the group is into conversions, approvals and plan sanctions, and runs zoning approvals in parallel with acquisition to cut delay and holding cost. The cleaner outcome is to buy land that needs no conversion or filling at all, since conversion is a roughly 9-month process with a heavy interest cost attached.

Immediate-use land is valued on rent and FSI; land banked for appreciation is valued on capital growth. For immediate industrial use you back-work from the product’s marketability and achievable rental, through the FSI the plot supports, to the final cost of land: the land cost per built-up sq ft is capped by the target return — around Rs 400–550/sqft of built-up area in the worked examples, assuming roughly 25,000 sqft buildable per acre. The ideal here is converted, ready-to-build rectangular land needing no filling, so it can be developed and leased at once. For a land bank, the lens changes: land appreciates while buildings depreciate, so choose an asset where you own more land than building. Industrial land carries a 25%+ appreciation premium on top of 10%+ rental RoI, evidenced by Madhavaram’s rise from Rs 1 cr to Rs 10 cr per acre. So immediate-use valuation asks whether the land supports a viable build-and-lease today; land-banking valuation asks how much the raw land will grow while it is held.

The Kist is the receipt of payment of land tax, issued by the VAO — the latest one should be obtained by the seller and handed over. Beyond that, diligence includes searches on outstanding government dues covering all kinds of taxes and liabilities to the government, and the Encumbrance Certificate itself reflects government dues charged on the property.

Shortlisting starts from the land’s Google coordinates — location coordinates are among the first attributes recorded for any parcel, used to place the land and read its surroundings. The Village map, available online, shows exactly where the land sits in the area and whether there are roads, water bodies, HT lines or cemeteries nearby, and a combined FMB sketch visualises the assembled parcel.

Yes — phased development and later acquisition of adjoining land are the norm. Projects are routinely built in three or five phases, with funding staged as equity for Phase 1 and lease rental discounting thereafter. CIPD’s growth model is explicitly fresh acquisition of land for expansion: returns from existing projects are reinvested to develop the same project further, with new land taken into fresh SPVs in locations where there is more traction in manufacturing. AWH also delivers custom-built spaces with expansion built in. Private parks are flexible for adding and reducing space quickly, unlike government parks, which are inflexible for growth and reduction — a point worth weighing when expansion is likely.

Upcoming expressways, corridors and transit lines lift industrial land prices sharply. Connectivity to highways and prime corridors is central to land value: the Oragadam-to-Maraimalai Nagar belt’s connectivity and robust infrastructure make it a key investment destination, and Madhavaram — served by highways and the upcoming Metro rail — climbed from Rs 1 crore per acre in 2006 to Rs 10 crore by 2021. The catch is that the same appreciation eventually prices industrial users out, so infrastructure-driven growth is best captured by buying ahead of the corridor rather than after it.

Multi-owner parcels are treated as higher risk and harder to close. The ownership profile is checked upfront — whether the land is owned by a single decision maker or by many, and what the realistic way towards finalizing the transaction looks like. Mitigation runs through title due diligence: a competent lawyer verifies partition and settlement deeds, inheritance and succession records and legal heir certificates to establish who actually holds what share. Physical verification follows — walk the boundaries and question neighbours on loans, agreements, disputes and ownership — and the mandatory 21-day newspaper notice before registration surfaces competing claims from co-owners who have not signed.

A sale deed for industrial land is registered with stamp duty at 7% and a registration fee at 2%, both computed on the guideline value. Pre-registration approval of the draft sale deed by the SRO is advisable, and a notice in an English and a Tamil newspaper should be placed 21 days before registration. On the tax side, where the consideration exceeds Rs 50 lakh the buyer must deduct 1% TDS under Section 194-IA, deposit it via Form 26QB within 30 days of month-end using the seller’s PAN — the rate rises to 20% without a valid PAN — and then issue the seller Form 16B from TRACES.

Yes — payment can be tied to milestones as a negotiated term. The transaction is deliberately structured for finance and taxation, and development agreements already spell out detailed financial points: security advances (refundable, non-refundable or interest-bearing, with pay-time and repayment timelines) and very clear timelines for sanctions, start of work, completion and delivery, with penalties attached. A payment schedule keyed to conversion, zoning approval or plan sanction therefore sits naturally within that framework. CIPD stages its own funding the same way — equity in Phase 1, lease rental discounting in later phases — releasing money as the project clears each milestone.

Roughly 1 : 2.5. In the worked example the all-in cost per built-up sq ft is land Rs 550 + construction Rs 1,350 + holding Rs 300 = Rs 2,200/sqft. In the Rs 15/sqft rental scenario the land falls to about Rs 400/sqft against construction of around Rs 1,200. Construction alone runs Rs 1,600–2,200/sqft depending on specification.

Skilled labour availability is one of the most critical aspects for any industry to flourish, and it shapes site selection directly. Choose zones where labour is easily available and rightly skilled, and study the location to avoid labour-related conflicts such as unionism, timings, wages and other demands. Chennai’s draw is exactly this: excellent talent and skilled and unskilled labour. Manpower availability in the immediate vicinity is a stated locational advantage — as at Ambattur and Madhavaram, where company buses transport employees to and from surrounding areas.

Before acquiring low-lying land, soil and water tests are conducted and site contours are measured with respect to the road and flooding levels. Property should not be located in low-lying areas as these may be prone to floods during monsoons, and floor height must be set high enough to avoid water logging. The water source is assessed by sinking a borewell first and then testing the water, with rainwater and storm-water management planned at design stage. The contour survey is done by surveyors within the 0–15 day site-analysis window, and any low-lying land carries a filling penalty that must be priced into the acquisition.

An established SIPCOT zone offers lower risk and capped upside; an upcoming corridor offers higher appreciation and real title, conversion and holding-cost risk. In SIPCOT and SIDCO parks, infrastructure and most NOCs and plan sanctions are already provided, land comes as a long-term 99-year lease, and the parks are ideal for long term — much of the title, approval and infrastructure risk is pre-cleared. Emerging corridors trade far cheaper: Gummidipoondi SIPCOT at ~Rs 1.9 cr/acre on-road and Sri City-Tada at ~Rs 1.3 cr sit well below established near-city clusters, and rents in newer areas stay proportionate to land and construction costs — which is where CIPD buys below market and targets 15–17% IRRs. But raw land there carries the real exposures: 8 out of 10 lands fail in title due diligence, regulatory approvals for land-use conversion take an extended time and increase holding costs, and fragmented ownership with unwilling sellers creates gaps. The mitigation is unchanged — thorough diligence, and buying converted, gap-free, rectangular land.

The underlying diligence is identical; the difference is the structure layered on top. Every buyer runs the same two-stream check — title documents, EC, mortgage deed/MODT, any Power of Attorney and a guideline-value check from the registration side; patta, chitta, adangal, the latest kist receipt, the Settlement “A” register, a combined FMB sketch, the village map and a legal heir certificate from the revenue side — plus the boundary walk, neighbour enquiry, soil and contour surveys, the 21-day newspaper notice, and the owner’s IT PAN and GST registration. An institutional investor then adds a capital and governance layer: CIPD acquires through an SPV or fund with thorough legal due diligence by CRC, raises capital from UHNIs and family offices via equity and convertible debentures, provides investors clear ownership of the single asset, and applies RoI/IRR-based valuation against a 4–8 year hold. An individual buyer typically acquires a smaller asset directly, or takes an undivided share as a shareholder in the SPV. Title, zoning, revenue and physical diligence remain common to both.

The Chitta (activity and crop) and the Adangal (boundaries) are both issued by the VAO — the Village Administrative Office — and the Chitta is available online. Copies are taken directly from the VAO, and old Adangals can be obtained from the taluk office for random years to check continuity in ownership. Patta, the proof of possession, is likewise available online from the deputy tahsildar.

Yes — but a retained parcel creates a gap, and gaps are the main reason large plots fail to develop. A seller keeping a small parcel is negotiable — deal terms are settled through AWH’s negotiation checklist. The risk is that any land the seller retains within or adjoining the plot becomes a gap — the same category as temple or kharab land, government land, canals, cemeteries and HT lines — which could impose development restrictions. That is exactly why a combined FMB sketch is prepared, to check the land has no gaps, and why AWH prefers fenced, gap-free rectangular land. If the seller does retain land, position it so it neither sits inside the plot nor blocks frontage and access.

Four to eight years. CIPD holds assets for 4–8 years, benefiting from compounding rental yields and higher exit multiples before selling to institutional buyers. Meaningful land appreciation plays out over longer horizons still: Madhavaram rose from Rs 1 crore per acre in 2006 to Rs 10 crore by 2021, and from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 40 crore per acre across twenty years.

Industrial land is deliberately sited away from residential areas, and parcels that end up beside housing lose their industrial viability. Industrial land is non-agricultural land in a location away from residences and dense population, so as not to cause a health risk for many people — it is required where air and sound pollution are likely to be high, which is why industries are normally placed away from urban residential areas, and why pollution-category rules and set-back requirements govern the approvals that follow. The consequence for acquisition is direct: the older areas closer to the city no longer have viability, as the land use has been changed to residential and is therefore not conducive for industrial or warehousing purposes. Madhavaram is the worked example — suburban industrial land that became city limit with Metro rail connectivity, where the lands are now being redeveloped into residential townships. As residential settlement catches up, land migrates out of industrial use. Practically, this pushes new industrial and warehousing acquisition towards newer, farther clusters — while cautioning against going so far out that infrastructure and social amenities disappear.

Aggregators and brokers do the work a lawyer cannot: a good broker ensures the rest, including viability and other hidden matters that are not visible to a lawyer or anyone else. AWH is the largest aggregator of commercial real estate in Chennai, and its promoter track record is built on aggregation and prime land deals — 100+ acres acquired and taken into development. Because buying industrial property is expensive, involves multiple legal procedures and carries heavy paperwork, buyers, owners and tenants work through an industrial property broker: an adviser with ideal, professional, specialist knowledge of industrial property across the city. For assembling large parcels specifically, a trustworthy agent, consultant or local realtor brings the specialised knowledge and market information gained from experience in that area, which helps avoid several unknown and localised pitfalls and secure the best property and deal. Vet the broker first — background and history, capabilities, systems, processes, database, online trust factor and relationships with local landlords. The payoff of assembling well is fenced, gap-free land ready for seamless transfer.

Land and project funding runs through financial institutions and the bank, secured on the land itself. About 15 to 25% of the construction cost must be brought as liquid funds — needed for approvals, sanctions, site pre-development and foundation — because there will always be a minimal amount of funding required for the project to be executed. Once an LoI or lease agreement is signed with a tenant, carrying a lock-in and a received security advance, financial institutions and the bank become comfortable funding the balance money, with the land offered as security towards such loans and advances. Post-completion, the leased asset is leveraged through a lease rental discounted (LRD) loan.

Mutation is confirmed by re-checking the revenue records in the buyer’s name after registration. Patta — the proof of possession of the land, issued by the deputy tahsildar at the taluk office and available online — is the record that must reflect the new owner following transfer; rural agricultural land historically passed from generation to generation by word of mouth and patta mutations. Chitta (activity and crop) and Adangal (boundaries) are then verified with the VAO, and old Adangals can be taken from the taluk office for random years to check continuity in ownership. The pre-1987 Settlement and UDR registers serve to identify owners of land not transacted and not visible in ECs.

Before finalising an industrial land acquisition, clear four blocks — land attributes, legal and revenue diligence, physical verification, and buildability.

  • Land attributes: location and village name, Google coordinates, survey number, extent, zoning and conversion status, road width, frontage, ownership profile, price, FSI achievable, cost per sq ft on FSI, a sketch, and the prevailing rental rate per sft in the area — plus any gaps (water bodies, cemetery, temple or kharab land, government land, HT lines, canals, oil pipes) within or adjoining the plot.

  • Legal and revenue: original title deeds; the EC (online from 01.01.1975, manual signed-and-sealed EC for 1960–1974); mortgage deed/MODT and release; any registered PoA; guideline-value and SRO pre-registration check; patta, chitta, adangal, the latest kist receipt, the Settlement “A” register, a combined FMB sketch, the village map, and a legal heir certificate for demised owners.

  • Physical: walk the boundaries, question neighbours on loans and disputes, run a revenue survey followed by a total-station survey, and place the 21-day English and Tamil newspaper notice.

  • Buildability: rectangular, converted, least filling. With 8 out of 10 lands failing title diligence, the goal is fenced, gap-free, ready-to-build land.

A Joint Venture applies to every kind of business; a Joint Development is specific to real estate. In a JV both parties contribute finance and expertise, both have active resources contributing on a continuous basis, an SPV is usually set up to achieve the objective, and profit is shared in proportion to investment (leaving aside a portion for sweat equity). In a JD the landlord contributes only the land, at the start of the project: his equity is the value of that land, calculated upfront, while the developer’s equity depends on his financial commitment and the specification of the product, with a set percentage in the end product fixed in advance for both. A JD shares revenue or area rather than profit, and is governed by an agreement rather than a company. It suits the builder: initial investment is low, with working capital going into construction. A JD is likened to a marriage: both sides need a clear understanding of every matter in advance — security advances, permitted and saleable FSI, net realisation to the landlord, revenue versus area sharing with escrow, specifications, sanction and delivery timelines with penalties, custody of originals, and the exit option if the project stalls.