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| Colin Behrens/Pixabay |
Travelling across Himachal Pradesh is a salivating experience for anyone with an interest in real estate.
Not taking away anything from their cuisine, the fact that picture perfect land parcels are scattered all over the state makes the land-owner inside most of us stir and want to break out with a check book.
However, folks from outside the state are restricted from buying land in Himachal Pradesh.
Why So?
Shimla, Kullu and Manali, Kasauli and all such tourist cities were once agricultural hubs, filled with sprawling fruit orchards producing delicious apples, peaches, cherries, plums and apricots, among many other fruits.
As pretty as these orchards may look, the fact is that you need acres after acres of farmland to turn a decent profit by growing and selling fruit.
It is an agricultural economy like any other in India. The sights are beautiful, the money is not.
Human aspirations, by the way are location agnostic, meaning everyone wants a villa in Gurgaon or a citizenship in Canada.
To fund that, an easy way would be to sell off that orchard and use the proceeds to chase those dreams.
Pretty soon, the entire state would be full of farmhouses belonging to city dwellers with, ironically, no real farming happening.
In effect, we would be exporting people and importing apples to feed our citizens.
Himachal's Restrictive Land Laws
Can people from outside the state buy land in Himachal? Mostly no but you're welcome if your intentions are genuine.
1️⃣ If you intend to purchase or lease a built-up property in municipal/cantonment/notified areas, then no permission is required. Land up and buy it.