22 June 2026 · 7 min read
Ask anyone who has built a farmhouse near Pune what the hardest part was, and very few will say the design. They'll say the approvals. Land status, sanctioning authorities, and permissions are where good projects stall — and where a little clarity up front saves months later.
This is a plain-English orientation, not legal advice. Every plot is specific, and you should confirm details with your architect and legal advisor. But knowing the landscape helps you ask the right questions before you buy.
Start with land status: the NA question
Most land around Pune is recorded as agricultural. To build a home or farmhouse on it, the land usually needs to be non-agricultural (NA) — or fall under a scheme that permits construction. This matters enormously: a beautiful design on land you can't legally build on is worthless. Confirm NA status, or a clear path to it, before you commit to a purchase.
It matters even more for NRIs and OCIs, who under FEMA can buy residential property but not agricultural, plantation, or farmhouse land. In practice, that means building on legally non-agricultural or approved plotted land.
Who sanctions your plan
Which authority approves your building plan depends on where the plot sits:
- PMC / PCMC — plots within Pune or Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal limits.
- PMRDA — much of the Pune Metropolitan Region, covering hundreds of villages around the city.
- Gram panchayat — certain rural village areas, subject to local rules.
- Collector / Town Planning — often involved in NA permissions and specific cases.
How the pieces fit together
A typical path runs: confirm land status and buildability, secure NA where needed, prepare sanction-ready drawings signed by a registered architect, submit to the relevant authority, and obtain the sanctioned plan before construction. Survey, design, and approvals work best when they run together rather than in sequence.
The single most valuable thing you can do is confirm you can build — legally and practically — before you fall in love with a plot.
How we help
As a COA-registered practice we prepare and sign your sanction-ready drawings and keep the approvals moving in step with the design. The liaisoning itself is handled by associate agencies who bill separately and vary by area — or you're free to appoint your own, and we'll support them fully either way. One honest caveat: approval timelines depend on the authority, not on us, so we never promise dates we don't control. What we do ensure is that drawings are never the thing holding up your file.