This checklist is what we wish every landowner in Hyderabad had before the first builder meeting. Work through it end to end. If you can tick every box, you are JDA-ready — and the share you negotiate will reflect that.
1
Title & Ownership — prove the land is actually yours
Before anyone talks about floors or percentages, the first question a serious builder asks is: is the title clean? Most deals collapse here.
- Linked documents for the last 30 years (better 50 years). Sale deeds, partition deeds, gift deeds, succession certificates — every link in the chain.
- Mother deed the original document from which your ownership flows.
- Encumbrance Certificate (EC) from the earliest available records (online records exist since 1984) from the Sub-Registrar. No gaps, no surprise mortgages.
- Pahani / Adangal / 1-B if the land is agricultural or recently converted.
- Revenue records Khasra, Chessala, ROR-1B, and old Pahani entries (one for every 5 years) — all certified by the Tehsildar, matching survey numbers on the sale deed.
- Legal heir certificate / family tree / succession documents if the land is inherited or jointly held. Every heir must be identified, even the ones abroad.
- No pending litigation. Run a court records search on Bhu Bharati, the district court, and the High Court — on the survey numbers and on every family member in the chain.
If even one of these is missing, fix it before the builder asks. A gap found by the builder becomes a discount on your share.
2
Survey & Extent — know exactly what you own
Numbers on a sale deed and numbers on the ground often disagree. Reconcile them yourself, or the builder will reconcile them down.
- Latest survey sketch from the Mandal Surveyor or a licensed surveyor, with GPS coordinates.
- Physical boundaries matching the sketch — no encroachment, no disputed margins.
- Possession demarcated with a fence or boundary wall. Unfenced land invites encroachment and weakens your claim during negotiation.
- Total extent reconciled across the sale deed, Pahani, and Bhu Bharati record. These three numbers must match. They often don't.
- Survey sub-division complete if the land was partitioned. Unsurveyed partition equals future dispute.
3
Regulatory Status — is the land build-ready?
A builder isn't buying your land; they're buying the right to build on it. Anything that blocks that right reduces your share.
- Land use zoning as per HMDA Master Plan / GO 111 / local Master Plan. Residential, mixed-use, or conservation? Verify on the HMDA / DTCP website — or check zoning directly on HMDA Master Plan layer.
- Conversion certificate (NALA conversion) if the land is classified as agricultural.
- LRS / BRS regularisation if the layout or plot was unauthorised.
- GO 111 / catchment restrictions — critical for land in and around Moinabad, Aziznagar, Janwada, Shamshabad and other catchment villages of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar.
- HMDA / GHMC jurisdiction confirmed — this determines which FSI, setback, and approval regime applies.
- Road width abutting the plot measured and documented. In Hyderabad, road width drives everything: FSI, landowner share, building height.
- Master Plan road widening — check if any part of your land falls under a proposed road. That portion won't count towards FSI calculation. Use Hyderabad Master Plan road layer to verify.
- Lake buffer zones — FTL and buffer restrictions can wipe out buildability. Cross-check on Hyderabad Lakes layer.
- Air funnel zone if the land is near Shamshabad airport — height restrictions apply. Verify on Hyderabad Air Funnel layer.
- HT line, nala, graveyard, or temple on or adjacent to the plot — all reduce buildable area.
4
Taxes, Dues & Charges — nothing pending
A clean encumbrance certificate is not the same as cleared dues. Builders check both.
- Property tax paid up to date (GHMC / Gram Panchayat).
- Water, electricity, vacant land tax cleared.
- No attachment by bank, income tax, or any government department.
- Loan clearance certificate if the land was ever mortgaged.
- Original title deeds in your custody — not with a bank, not with a relative, not "at the lawyer's office".
5
Know Your Numbers — negotiate from data, not hope
This is where 1acre sees the biggest gap. Landowners enter JDA negotiations without knowing the market. Builders enter with spreadsheets.
Before you sit across from a builder, know:
- Your zone. Is your land in the ultra high-rise corridor, the high-rise zone, the mid-rise zone, or villa area? Each has a completely different landowner share band.
- Going landowner share in your micro-market — not the city average. Kokapet is not Kompally.
- Comparable JDA deals in a 2 km radius, executed in the last 12 months. Ask other landowners. Ask brokers. Cross-check.
- Your FSI potential. Approach an architect to work out FSI based on the applicable guidelines for your plot.
- Per sq ft sale rate the builder expects to achieve. Your share of revenue is only as good as the price the project sells at.
7
The Agreement Itself — non-negotiables before you sign
The Agreement Itself — non-negotiables before you sign
- Registered JDA — not notarised, not on stamp paper alone. Unregistered JDAs are unenforceable in Karnataka and Telangana.
- Registered GPA (General Power of Attorney) — narrow in scope, limited to the project. Never give a builder an unrestricted GPA over your land.
- Supplementary agreement specifying unit numbers allotted to you, floor-wise, with carpet area for each.
- RERA registration of the project before you start marketing your share.
- Exit clause — what happens if the builder defaults, goes bankrupt, or delays beyond the penalty cap?
- Your lawyer, not the builder's lawyer Non-negotiable.
8
Empathise with the Builder — a fair deal beats a squeezed deal
The most successful JDAs in Hyderabad aren't the ones where the landowner extracted every last percentage point — they're the ones where both sides had enough margin to deliver well.
Before you push for an extra 5% share, understand what a builder is actually carrying:
- Construction cost is not the only cost A builder pays for approvals, RERA registration, GST input mismatches, marketing, brokerage (3–5% of sale value), legal, taxes, financing cost (typically 12–18% per annum on borrowed capital), contingency, and developer margin. Construction itself is roughly 40–55% of total project cost.
- Their capital is locked for 3–5 years.Approvals are the biggest risk they carry From land tie-up to last unit sold, a builder's money is illiquid. If your project takes 5 years, they need a margin that compensates for 5 years of opportunity cost.
- Approvals are the biggest risk they carry HMDA / GHMC plan sanction, environmental clearance, fire NOC, height clearance, occupation certificate — every one of these can stall the project for months. The builder absorbs that delay; you don't.
- Sales risk is theirs alone. If the market softens, the builder can't pay you in unsold units. They eat the inventory carry. A reasonable share leaves them room to weather a slow cycle without abandoning the project.
- A reputable builder is worth a 2–3% lower share. Quality construction, on-time delivery, a brand that helps your units sell faster — these are real value. Don't optimise only for percentage; optimise for the partner.
- Premium FSI and TDR cost real money. If your share is computed on total buildable area (including premium FSI), remember the builder paid the government for that extra FSI. That cost has to come out of someone's share.
- If a builder is offering a share that seems too high, ask why. Either they're inexperienced, they're desperate, or they've underestimated costs — and any of those will hurt you when the project hits a real test.
- A builder who walks away mid-project is your worst outcome Land stuck in litigation. RERA complaints from buyers who paid for your share's units. Years of court time. A 35% share completed on time beats a 45% share that never finishes.
The right framing for a JDA negotiation isn't "how much can I extract?" — it's "what split lets a competent builder deliver this well, and gives me my fair share of the value created?"
Push hard on the things that protect you — registration, RERA, penalty clauses, exit rights, indemnity, your lawyer. Push less hard on the headline percentage. The first set determines whether you actually get what you signed for. The second is just the size of the cake.