Buying a branded resort villa in India from the UK: what actually reaches your account in London?

The product is simple to describe and easy to mis-sell. You buy a villa, suite or room inside a five-star resort in India and you get a registered sale deed in your own name. A hotel brand — Wyndham, Trademark by Wyndham, Dolce by Wyndham, Regenta by Royal Orchid, Clarks or KAMAH — operates the property. The developer or its special purpose vehicle then leases your unit back and pays you a contractual annual rent of 8% to 10% of the purchase price, plus a fixed block of free owner stay-nights each year. You are not buying a share of a fund, a fractional token or a REIT unit. You are buying a specific unit and one specific counterparty's promise to pay you rent on it.

The live inventory, with indicative sterling equivalents: Wyndham Grand Jaipur at Amer, 8% from about Rs 1.10 crore (~£98,000), 25 nights. Regenta Resort & Spa Pushkar, 8% from about Rs 75 lakh (~£67,000), 25 nights. KAMAH Resort Jawai, 10% from about Rs 71 lakh (~£63,000), 25 nights. KAMAH Coorg, 10% from about Rs 91 lakh (~£81,000), 25 nights. Dolce by Wyndham Udaipur, 9% from about Rs 1.31 crore (~£117,000), 12 nights. Dolce by Wyndham Goa Mandrem, 10% from about Rs 1.31 crore (~£117,000), 12 nights. AME Sakleshpur, 9% from about Rs 99 lakh (~£88,000), 25 nights. Clarks Pushkar, developed by Dreamline, 8% for the first five years and then a 50% revenue share, from about Rs 60-65 lakh (~£54,000-58,000).

Every sterling figure on this page uses an indicative rate of £1 = Rs 112, checked July 2026, and it will be wrong by the time you sign. The contract currency is the Indian rupee. Prices, instalments, rent and the eventual sale price are all denominated in rupees. You carry 100% of the currency risk, on the way in and on the way out, and nobody in this chain hedges it for you.

ResortWealth is an independent advisor, not the developer and not the hotel brand. We are paid a channel-partner commission by the developer on a completed booking. You pay us nothing. That is exactly why this page tells you what the tax actually costs and who should walk away — an independent advisor who never says no is just a salesperson with better manners.

The UK-specific headline, stated plainly before you read another line: you are taxed in the UK on your worldwide income. India taxes this rent first, because the asset sits in India. The India-UK double taxation treaty does not exempt the income and it does not reduce the Indian rate on rent — it gives you a credit for Indian tax paid, capped at the UK tax on the same income. The practical consequence is that your total tax burden is set by your UK marginal rate, not by the Indian one. And two things changed under your feet in April 2025: the non-dom regime and the remittance basis were abolished, and inheritance tax moved from domicile to long-term residence. Anything you read online written before April 2025 is now actively misleading.

Why would someone in London put £60,000 to £120,000 into an Indian resort suite instead of a UK buy-to-let?

Because the shape of the risk is different, not because India is 'cheaper'. A UK buy-to-let in a decent regional city grosses perhaps 5-6%, then you lose 10-12% to an agent, a few weeks a year to voids, an unpredictable repairs bill, service charge and ground rent on a flat, and you paid a 5% additional-dwelling stamp duty surcharge on the way in. Mortgage interest is no longer a deduction, only a 20% credit. On a good year you keep 3-4% before income tax. A branded resort unit pays a contractual 8-10% with no tenants, no voids, no agent and no repairs bill — because every one of those small, diversified risks has been compressed into a single obligor's ability to pay. That is the trade. You are swapping many small risks for one concentrated one. If that sentence makes you uncomfortable, the honest answer is that it should.

In cash terms: Wyndham Grand Jaipur at Amer, at 8% on about Rs 1.10 crore (~£98,000), contracts to pay Rs 8.80 lakh a year — roughly £7,860 gross at the indicative rate. KAMAH Resort Jawai, at 10% on about Rs 71 lakh (~£63,000), contracts to Rs 7.10 lakh — roughly £6,340 gross. Dolce by Wyndham Udaipur at 9% on about Rs 1.31 crore (~£117,000) contracts to Rs 11.79 lakh, roughly £10,530 gross. Those are gross, pre-tax, pre-currency numbers. The tax section below turns them into what actually lands in a UK current account, and the drop is larger than any developer will tell you.

The stay-nights are real value but they are only real if you would have travelled anyway. Twenty-five nights at the Rs 15,000-25,000 a night these resorts publish is Rs 3.75-6.25 lakh of retail value, roughly £3,300-5,600 a year. If you and your family genuinely spend three weeks in India most years, that is a meaningful part of the return. If you fly out once every three years for a wedding, count it as close to zero and buy purely on yield. Before you value the nights at all, read the blackout dates, whether nights are transferable to parents or siblings travelling without you, and whether unused nights roll over. Those three clauses vary between projects and that is where the value actually lives or dies.

For a lot of British-Indian families there is a second reason that has nothing to do with yield: a registered freehold deed in your own name, in a place your family can actually use, in Rajasthan or coastal Karnataka or Goa. It is a different thing from a fractional platform's paper share or a REIT unit on a screen. It is also far harder to sell in a hurry, which is the same fact viewed from the other side.

If what you actually want is 8% with liquidity, this is the wrong product and we will say so. Indian REITs, UK-listed property funds, an NRE fixed deposit in India at roughly 6-7%, gilts and cash all exist and all behave differently in a bad year. One trap worth naming: NRE fixed deposit interest is exempt from Indian tax under Section 10(4)(ii), and UK residents routinely assume that means tax-free. It does not. Exempt in India is fully taxable in the UK, and with no Indian tax paid there is no credit to claim. These are neutral comparisons for context, not recommendations to buy any of them — for anything regulated, speak to a SEBI-registered investment adviser in India and an FCA-authorised adviser in the UK.

What tax will I actually pay — in India and in the UK — and does the India-UK treaty fix it?

Answer first: India taxes the rent first because the property is in India (Article 6 of the 1993 India-UK double taxation convention gives the situs state the taxing right, with no reduced treaty rate for rent). The UK taxes the same rent again because you are UK resident on worldwide income. Article 24 of the treaty then gives you a credit in the UK for the Indian tax you actually paid, capped at the UK tax on that same income. The treaty prevents double taxation; it does not make anything tax-free. Because a foreign tax credit can never exceed the UK tax on the income, and is not a refund of Indian tax, your ceiling is your UK marginal rate. Every figure below is FY 2025-26 / UK tax year 2025-26, illustrative.

The Indian mechanics, in order. The operator or developer withholds tax under Section 195 before it pays you — 30% plus 4% cess, so roughly 31.2% of the gross rent, with surcharge on top if your total Indian income crosses the surcharge thresholds. That is a withholding, not your final bill. Your actual Indian liability is computed on filing: if the rent is assessed as income from house property, you start from the net annual value — gross rent less municipal taxes you actually paid — take the Section 24(a) standard deduction of 30% of that net annual value (not of gross rent, a mistake half the internet makes), and apply the slab rates. Note that non-residents do not get the Section 87A rebate, but the basic exemption limit still applies.

Worked example, KAMAH Resort Jawai. Gross rent Rs 7.10 lakh. Assume no municipal taxes borne by you, so net annual value is Rs 7.10 lakh; less 30% leaves about Rs 4.97 lakh taxable. India has already withheld about Rs 2.21 lakh at source. If this is your only Indian income, your actual Indian tax under the new regime for FY 2025-26 is a few thousand rupees, so the overwhelming bulk of that withholding comes back as a refund — with interest under Section 244A at 0.5% per month, subject to conditions. It is not interest-free, but the cash is out of your hands for six to fifteen months and the first year of ownership will feel much worse than the brochure. The practical fix is a Section 197 lower-deduction certificate, applied for before the rent starts flowing, so the operator withholds at your real rate instead of 31.2%.

One caveat that sits underneath every net-yield number on this page: income characterisation. Rent from an arrangement like this may be assessed as income from house property, as business income, or as income from other sources, depending on the structure and how the assessing officer sees it. The 30% Section 24(a) deduction only exists if the house-property characterisation survives. In a revenue-share phase — Clarks Pushkar after year five, for instance — that characterisation is materially more exposed, and the deduction may not be available at all. Ask your CA to look at the actual lease deed, not the marketing deck.

The India-only net-yield arithmetic. The method is: net yield = headline rate x (1 - 0.7 x effective tax rate), because only 70% of the rent is taxable after the 30% deduction. At a 31.2% effective rate, an 8% property nets about 6.25%, a 9% property about 7.03%, and a 10% property about 7.8%. Anyone who pairs a 10% headline with a 6.25% net number is quoting the wrong property's maths at you.

But for a UK resident the Indian number is not where the story ends, and this is the part developers never model. The UK does not accept India's computational rules. HMRC recomputes your overseas property profit under UK rules: actual expenses wholly and exclusively incurred, no notional 30% deduction, sterling figures, and the £1,000 property allowance if it happens to help. On a sale-leaseback where the operator bears everything, your UK-measure profit is close to the gross rent. You then credit the Indian tax actually paid — which after your Indian refund is small — against the UK tax. So a 40% UK taxpayer keeps roughly 60% of the gross: a 10% headline becomes about 6.0% net of everything, a 9% becomes about 5.4%, an 8% becomes about 4.8%. At the 45% additional rate those become roughly 5.5%, 4.95% and 4.4%. Those are the numbers to plan on. Illustrative, FY 2025-26.

The uncomfortable corollary: the lower your Indian tax, the more the UK collects. A Section 197 certificate improves your cash flow, not your total burden. And a UK basic-rate taxpayer can end up in the opposite bind — if the Indian tax paid exceeds the UK tax on the same income, the excess credit is simply lost. HMRC does not refund Indian tax, and unused credit on property income generally cannot be carried forward.

The 2025 UK changes, because most advice online predates them. The non-dom regime and the remittance basis were abolished from 6 April 2025 and replaced by a four-year foreign income and gains (FIG) regime, available only to new arrivals who were non-UK resident for the ten consecutive tax years before arriving. Claiming FIG relief means losing your personal allowance and CGT annual exempt amount for that year, and income relieved under FIG generates no UK tax and therefore no foreign tax credit — so Indian tax withheld on relieved income has nothing to sit against. Former remittance-basis users have a time-limited Temporary Repatriation Facility for pre-April-2025 foreign income and gains at reduced rates. Separately, the furnished holiday lettings regime was abolished from 6 April 2025, so do not assume holiday-let treatment for a resort unit. These rules are new and still bedding in: take current advice, and disregard anything written before April 2025.

Inheritance tax, which is the largest single number on this page and the one nobody mentions in a sales meeting. From 6 April 2025 UK IHT follows long-term residence rather than domicile. If you have been UK resident in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, your worldwide estate is in scope — including an Indian resort villa — at 40% above the nil-rate band of £325,000 (illustrative, 2025-26). The residence nil-rate band will not help an overseas investment property. There is also a tail of between three and ten years after you leave the UK, depending on how long you were resident. India abolished estate duty in 1985, so there is no Indian death tax to credit against the UK charge. An old 1956 India-UK estate duty convention remains on the statute book and how it interacts with the new long-term residence test is genuinely specialist ground — raise it explicitly, by name, with a UK IHT adviser. Separately, write an Indian will covering your Indian assets; a UK will alone makes Indian transmission slow and expensive.

Exit tax, both sides. Hold the unit more than 24 months and the Indian gain is long-term, taxed at 12.5% plus surcharge and cess, without indexation — the 20%-with-indexation option for pre-July-2024 acquisitions is available to residents only, not to you. Your buyer must withhold under Section 195 on the gross consideration, typically around 13-15% including surcharge and cess, which you then reclaim on filing. The UK taxes the same gain at its main CGT rates (currently 18% or 24% depending on your band — check the rate in force in the year you sell), computed in sterling using the exchange rate at acquisition and at disposal, with credit for the Indian tax. That last point matters more than people expect: a sale that is flat in rupees can still be a taxable sterling gain, or a sterling loss, purely on currency movement.

Finally, the cost stack on the way in, and it must be stated as two separate cases because GST changes it completely. On a completed unit with an occupancy certificate, GST is nil, and you are looking at state stamp duty of roughly 5-7%, registration of roughly 1-3%, plus legal, power of attorney, apostille and documentation — call it 7-10% on top of the price. On under-construction non-residential inventory, GST applies at roughly 12% effective, taking the all-in load to roughly 19-22%. Anyone who quotes you a single blended 'all-in 8-12%' figure without first telling you which case you are in has either not checked or is hoping you will not.

None of this is tax advice. Your position depends on your residence, your other income, the exact structure of the lease and the rules in force when you sign. Confirm every line of it with a qualified adviser in your country of residence and a CA in India before you commit money.

This is general information, not tax advice. Your position depends on your residency, your other income and the treaty in force — confirm it with a qualified adviser in United Kingdom and a CA in India before you commit.

How does the money get from Jaipur to my UK current account?

There are three separate legs — money in, rent out, capital out — and each is governed by different rules. Get leg one wrong and legs two and three become expensive.

Money in. Pay by SWIFT from your UK bank account, or from an NRE or FCNR account, straight to the developer's designated account. Insist on the FIRC or FIRA (the foreign inward remittance certificate or advice) from the receiving Indian bank for every single tranche, and keep them in a folder for the next fifteen years. That paper trail is what makes your sale proceeds repatriable when you eventually exit. India's 20% TCS on outbound remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme is a resident Indian's problem, not yours — you are bringing money in, not sending it out.

Currency, which is the leg people ignore. The contract is in rupees. At an indicative £1 = Rs 112 (July 2026), Wyndham Grand Jaipur at Rs 1.10 crore costs about £98,000. If sterling weakens 8% before your final instalment, the same unchanged rupee price costs you roughly £106,000 — and the reverse is equally true. On staged payments over 18-30 months this is not a rounding error. Your high street bank will typically take 1-1.5% in spread plus a wire fee each way; a specialist FX broker usually takes 0.2-0.5% and can quote forward contracts for scheduled instalments. On £100,000 that difference is £700-£1,300 of pure leakage. Look at the spread, not the advertised 'no fee'.

Rent out. Rent is paid in rupees into your NRO account, typically quarterly in arrears though some agreements pay annually — check which, in writing, before you sign. It arrives net of the roughly 31.2% Section 195 withholding. To convert and send it to the UK, your CA certifies the remittance on Form 15CB and you file Form 15CA online; your bank then remits. Because rent is current income, there is no USD 1 million cap standing in the way — that cap is for capital items. Budget a few thousand rupees per remittance in CA and bank charges, which is why most owners repatriate once or twice a year rather than quarterly.

Capital out. On sale, proceeds land in your NRO account and repatriation is subject to the USD 1 million per financial year limit — roughly Rs 8.5-9 crore, about £760,000-£800,000 at the indicative rate. A single unit from this inventory sits comfortably inside that in one year. The residential two-property restriction under Rule 21(2) does not apply to commercial property at all, so if your unit is classified commercial that is a point in your favour on repatriation, not against you. What the bank will actually ask for is proof that the purchase was funded by inward remittance, NRE or FCNR money, plus your tax filings and 15CA/15CB.

Timing. On a completed unit with an occupancy certificate, rent usually begins within a quarter of registration. On under-construction inventory, expect 18 to 36 months from your first payment to your first rupee, because rent typically starts at handover or hotel opening rather than at booking. Ask for the RERA registration number, the declared completion date, and the exact contractual trigger for rent to commence — possession, occupancy certificate and hotel opening are three different dates and developers are not always careful about which one they mean.

What do I actually do next, in order, from the UK?

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