Property investment in Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh: how to evaluate a project

This guide is general information to help you ask the right questions — not legal, tax or financial advice. For a specific purchase, verify the current rules with the relevant authority or a professional.

How do you evaluate a real estate project before investing?

Work through these in order; a project that fails an early check doesn’t need the later ones.

1. Registration. Is the project registered with UP RERA? Under the RERA Act, most projects (land over 500 square metres, or more than eight apartments) must be registered before they can be advertised or sold.
2. Developer track record. What has this developer already delivered, and how close to the promised date? Visit a completed project of theirs if you can.
3. Timeline. What completion date is filed with UP RERA? That filed date, not the brochure, is the one the developer is accountable to.
4. Location fundamentals. Road access, distance to work and schools, and what’s already built around the site today — not only what’s planned.
5. Cost. The full cost on the carpet area you will actually use (see below), and a payment plan you can meet even if possession is late.
6. Exit. If this is an investment, who would buy or rent it from you, and at what price? Compare with resale and rental listings for similar completed units nearby.

How do I verify a RERA number in UP?

Every registered project and agent in Uttar Pradesh has a registration number you can look up on the official site, up-rera.in. When you search a project, check that:

• the promoter (developer) and project names match the brochure and the agreement;
• the address and the phase or tower you are buying are covered by that registration;
• the proposed completion date is one you are comfortable with;
• the project’s documents and quarterly progress updates are being filed.

The RERA Act also requires developers to keep 70% of the money collected from buyers in a separate account for that project, and caps the advance they can take before a written agreement for sale at 10% of the cost.

What’s the difference between carpet area and built-up area?

Carpet area is the usable floor area inside the unit’s walls. Built-up area adds the thickness of the unit’s own walls. Super built-up area further adds a share of common areas — lobbies, stairwells, corridors. RERA requires developers to quote carpet area, which is the figure to compare projects on.

A practical tip: divide the total price by the carpet area to get a real per-square-foot cost. Two projects with the same “rate” on super built-up area can differ a lot once you do this.

What does a property really cost beyond the base price?

• Preferential location charges (corner, park-facing, higher floor), if any;
• parking, club membership, power backup and maintenance deposits, where charged;
• GST on under-construction property — generally 5% for residential units (1% for qualifying affordable housing); not charged on completed units sold after the completion certificate;
• stamp duty and registration charges, set by the Uttar Pradesh government — check the current rates at the time of registry;
• home loan processing fees and interest during construction, if you finance the purchase.

Ask for all of these in one written cost sheet before paying a booking amount.

FCFS vs lottery: how do LDA allotment schemes work?

The Lucknow Development Authority allots apartments under different schemes. In a lottery, applications are collected during a registration window and allotment is by draw — applying doesn’t assure you a unit. Under a first-come-first-serve (FCFS) scheme, the available units are allotted in the order applications arrive, so timing matters and you know sooner whether you have a unit.

Lalit is empanelled with LDA to assist with its plots and with applicants under its current first-come-first-serve apartment scheme. The application itself is still submitted to, and processed by, the LDA.

Should you buy through a channel partner or direct from the developer?

For a new unit the price is the same either way: the developer sets it, and pays an authorised channel partner’s commission itself. The differences are in what you get:

The one thing to confirm is that the partner is genuinely authorised by that developer — see how to check an agent.