This question is usually posed as if one answer were correct. It is not. A plot and a finished house are different assets with different cost structures, different documents and different risks. What follows sets out the practical differences, without recommending either.
What you are actually buying
With a plot, you are buying land, and the record of that ownership is a 7/12 extract with your name in the holder's column for that sub-divided plot. What sits above the ground is your decision and your problem.
With a built second home, you are buying a structure and a legal interest in the land under it. Which interest depends on the form. An independent bungalow on its own plot is land ownership plus a building. An apartment is an undivided share in the land together with exclusive rights to a flat, evidenced by a registered agreement and, once a co-operative housing society is formed, a share certificate. Buyers frequently do not realise they have bought the second when they thought they were buying the first.
Capital outlay and phasing
A plot lets you separate the land payment from the construction payment; a ready home does not.
Buying land commits you to the land price, stamp duty, registration and professional fees now. Construction can follow in a year, in five years, or never. That flexibility is the most cited reason people buy plots, and it is real.
A ready home requires the full consideration at purchase, or the full loan against it. What you gain is certainty: the price is the price, with no construction cost inflation between decision and occupation.
Control over what gets built
A plot gives you control over layout, orientation, materials and phasing, within the regulations. A ready home gives you none of it, and no construction risk either.
Control cuts both ways. Building means appointing an architect, a licensed structural engineer and a contractor, and finding someone to supervise them, over a period measured in seasons. If you live in another city and visit once a month, that supervision has a real cost. A finished home removes all of that, and also removes the ability to change anything you would have done differently except by paying to undo it.
What FSI means for what you can put on a plot
Floor Space Index determines how much floor area you may build on a given plot. Under Maharashtra's Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations, Regulation 1.3(63) defines FSI as the area covered by the P line, described in Regulation 6.6, on all floors, divided by the net plot area. Regulation 1.3(17) defines Basic FSI as the FSI permissible without paying a premium or loading TDR.
Regulation 6.3 and Table 6-G set basic FSI at 1.10, for every road width, in non-congested areas of developable zones. Above that, the table distinguishes two columns:
- For all Municipal Corporations, and CIDCO as Planning Authority by virtue of NTDA: FSI on payment of premium up to 0.50, TDR loading from 0.40 to 1.40 by road width, and maximum building potential from 1.10 up to 3.00.
- For remaining Authorities and Areas: premium FSI up to 0.30, TDR loading from 0.30 to 1.10, and maximum building potential from 1.10 up to 2.50.
The maximum rises with the width of the road the plot abuts. A plot on a road below 9.0 m gets basic FSI only, with no premium FSI and no TDR.
Three notes to Table 6-G matter to anyone planning a house. Note (i) allows ancillary area FSI of up to 60% of the proposed FSI on payment of premium, for all buildings in all zones, rising to 80% for non-residential use. Note (ii) states that the TDR column does not apply where there is no Planning Authority. Note (viii) sets the premium for premium FSI at 35% of the Annual Statement of Rates land rate; in Regional Plan areas the entire premium goes to Government through the District offices of the Town Planning and Valuation Department.
Regulation 6.8 lists what is excluded from the FSI calculation, including stilt, podium or basement used exclusively for parking with its passages, staircase and lift lobby, and porches, canopies, lofts, lift wells and lift machine rooms.
On permitted uses, Regulation 4.3 covers Residential Zone R-1 and permits residences, hostels, lodging with or without boarding, old age homes, sanatoria, orphanages and night shelters. R-1 covers residential plots abutting roads below 12.0 m in non-congested areas, and the regulation notes that in C-class Municipal Councils, Nagarpanchayats and Regional Plan areas that threshold becomes 9.0 m.
One caveat. The text used here is UDCPR-2020 as updated to 30 January 2025, and amendments after that date are not reflected. Confirm the current position with the planning authority for your plot before designing anything around these numbers.
None of this arises with a ready home. The FSI question was settled by whoever built it, and what you can add later is limited by what they left unused.
Time, permissions and the process of building
Building requires development permission and a commencement certificate before work starts, and an occupancy certificate before lawful occupation, the subject of Chapter 2 of the UDCPR. Buying a completed home with a valid occupancy certificate skips that sequence entirely.
The realistic order on a plot is: establish zone and tenure, obtain the zone certificate, appoint a licensed architect, prepare and submit plans, obtain development permission and the commencement certificate, build, then obtain the occupancy certificate. Every one of those steps has a queue in front of it, and the queue is not something you control.
Holding costs and maintenance
These two get confused, and are not the same.
| Unbuilt plot | Built second home | |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring public dues | Land revenue or municipal tax on the land | Property tax on land and structure |
| Maintenance | Minimal: boundary, vegetation, periodic inspection | Continuous: roof, damp, paint, plumbing, pest, garden |
| Society or estate charges | Estate or layout charges where a scheme levies them | Society maintenance or estate charges, typically monthly |
| Utilities | Usually none connected | Standing charges even when unoccupied |
| Depreciation | Land does not depreciate | The structure does, and needs capital spend over time |
An unbuilt plot is cheap to hold and needs watching. A built home is expensive to hold and needs looking after. A house standing empty for most of the year is not a passive asset, and a caretaker is a line item rather than an afterthought.
Resale and liquidity
Neither is a liquid asset, and both sell to a narrower pool of buyers than a city apartment.
A plot's buyer pool includes anyone who wants to build, which is broad in principle and slow in practice. Its saleability depends heavily on how clean the documentation is: a sub-divided 7/12 in the seller's name, a clear tenure class, unambiguous access and no reservation.
A built home is sold on its condition and design as much as its location, which narrows the pool to buyers who like what was built. Against that, a buyer can see and value it immediately.
The comparison that matters is not plot against house. It is between paying in time, supervision and permission risk, and paying in money and someone else's design decisions.
The documents are different
| Land or plot | Apartment in a scheme | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary ownership record | 7/12 extract with your name in the holder's column for the sub-divided plot | Registered agreement for sale, plus a society share certificate once the society is formed |
| What you hold | The land itself | An undivided share in the land, plus exclusive rights to the flat |
| Planning documents to check | Zone certificate, sanctioned layout, access | Sanctioned building plans, commencement and occupancy certificates |
| Who can restrict transfer | Collector, where tenure is Occupancy Class II | Society transfer rules, and any lender's charge |
| What you build | Your decision, within the regulations | Fixed |
What to ask for before you pay
- For land: the 7/12 for the specific sub-divided plot, its tenure class, and the Collector's order if it is Occupancy Class II.
- For land: a zone certificate from the correct planning authority, showing sanctioned use and any reservation.
- For land: written confirmation of the road width the plot abuts, since it determines building potential under Table 6-G.
- For a built home: the sanctioned plans, the commencement certificate and the occupancy certificate, all three.
- For an apartment: the society's registration, the share certificate position, and the transfer rules.
- For either: an advocate's search report on the chain of title, and an encumbrance certificate from the Sub-Registrar.
- For either: the stamp duty and registration position confirmed in writing for that specific survey number before you transact.