I am paying from abroad. Which account should the money come from, and what will the bank ask for?
An NRE account holds foreign-currency earnings remitted to India; an NRO account holds rupee income arising in India — rent, dividends, sale proceeds. A purchase funded from an NRE account is treated differently from one funded from an NRO account, and that difference follows the money for years: it decides what may later leave the country and what evidence the bank needs.
Banks and the sub-registrar care less about which account you used than about whether the trail is provable: the outward remittance advice, the Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate, and a deed whose consideration matches what actually arrived. A gap between the deed figure and the bank trail is the most common reason a transaction stalls at registration.
An Indian PAN is required to transact, to file, and to claim treaty relief. It is obtainable from abroad, and everything downstream — withholding treatment, refunds, repatriation certificates — depends on it existing before the transaction rather than after.
General information, dated October 2026, not tax or legal advice. Confirm every figure with a chartered accountant before you act.