Real estate and investing in plain language.

Documents

Conversion order#

A government order that formally changes the permitted use of a piece of land — most commonly from agricultural to residential or commercial. Without a valid conversion order, a residential structure on agricultural land is legally vulnerable.

Every Paylap property that was historically agricultural carries a conversion order in its diligence pack.

Encumbrance certificate (EC)#

A document issued by the sub-registrar's office certifying that a specific piece of land is free of monetary or legal liabilities — no pending mortgages, no court attachments, no unresolved liens — over a specified period.

For Paylap listings we insist on an EC dated within 30 days of the property going live, covering at least the most recent 15 years.

Khasra#

The plot number assigned to a piece of land in the village land records, used in revenue documents to uniquely identify a parcel within a village. In Delhi, you'll see khasra references in the title chain of most plots that originated as agricultural or village land.

Layout sanction#

Formal approval from the local development authority for the layout of plots, internal roads, and common amenities within a plotting scheme. The sanction confirms that the layout meets minimum standards for road width, plot sizes, set-backs and utility provision.

Mutation#

The process of updating the local revenue records (RTC, 7/12 extract or equivalent depending on the state) to reflect a new owner after a sale or transfer. Without mutation, the buyer's name doesn't appear in government records even after a registered sale deed.

An updated mutation is one of the diligence items we check before listing any property.

Investment metrics

CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)#

The constant annual rate at which an investment would have to compound to deliver its observed total return. Useful for comparing investments of different tenures on a common annualised basis.

An ₹80,000 return on a ₹1,00,000 investment over five years works out to roughly 12.5% CAGR.

IRR (Internal Rate of Return)#

The annualised rate at which an investment grows, accounting for the timing of all cash flows in and out. For investments with no interim cash flows, IRR equals CAGR. For investments with periodic payouts (such as monthly-interest plot plans), IRR is higher than CAGR because money comes back sooner and can be redeployed.

Investment structure

Escrow#

An arrangement where money is held by a neutral third party until specific contractual conditions are met. Under RERA, registered project promoters must escrow 70% of buyer payments project-by-project, so the funds cannot be diverted to unrelated projects.

SPV (Special-purpose vehicle)#

A company or entity created specifically to hold a defined asset — in real estate, often a specific plot or project. SPV structures ring-fence the asset from the operating risk of the parent company, which is one of the reasons platforms like Paylap use them.

Paylap-specific

Maturity amount#

The total amount you receive at the end of a plot investment plan — your original principal plus the accrued interest at the rate locked in at booking. The figure is fixed in the signed investment agreement and does not vary with market conditions during the tenure.

Penny-drop verification#

A bank account verification mechanism where the platform sends a small amount (typically under ₹2) to the customer-provided account, and uses the bank's response to confirm both that the account is valid and that the name on it matches the customer's KYC.

We do penny-drop verification before any maturity payout, and again whenever an investor updates their payout bank account.

Plot investment plan#

A structured investment product where you commit capital against a specific identified plot for a defined tenure (typically 24–36 months), in exchange for a contractual interest rate on the principal, with principal and interest paid at maturity to your verified bank account.

The structure sits between a fixed deposit and a direct land purchase — higher yield than the former, more accessible than the latter.

Property rights

Freehold#

A form of land ownership where the title sits with the holder indefinitely and without revenue obligations to a higher authority. Freehold is the most complete form of ownership available in Indian property law, and it is what every plot listed on Paylap carries.

Compare with leasehold, where the land is held under a fixed-term lease, typically 99 years.

Leasehold#

A form of land ownership where the holder has a right to use the land for a defined period — usually 99 years — under terms set by the lessor (often a government body like DDA in Delhi). At the end of the lease, the rights revert unless renewed.

Most plots in private plotting belts are freehold; many apartments in DDA-developed areas were originally leasehold and have since been converted.

Regulation

DPDP Act#

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 — India's data-protection law. It gives every individual rights over their personal data: the right to know what is held, to correct it, to withdraw consent for processing, and to request deletion (subject to legal retention obligations).

Our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy describe how we comply.

PMLA#

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 — the law that places KYC, transaction monitoring, and reporting obligations on any institution handling investor money. Compliance is the reason every Paylap investor goes through Aadhaar e-KYC, PAN cross-verification, and bank account verification before booking.

RERA#

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — the central law that brought transparency and disclosure obligations to Indian real estate. Projects above defined thresholds must register with their state RERA authority, publish quarterly construction progress, escrow 70% of buyer payments project-by-project, and disclose all material facts to investors.

For RERA-registered projects on Paylap, the registration number is published on the property page and can be verified on the state portal.

Taxation

Indexation#

A tax provision under Indian law that lets you adjust the cost basis of a long-held asset upward using the government's Cost Inflation Index (CII) before computing capital gains tax. The effect is to tax only the real (inflation-adjusted) gain rather than the nominal gain.

Long-term gains on land sales benefit from indexation at the current 20% rate.