By Saurabh Garg, founder·6 min read·Published 2026-08-13

Short answer: You can rent out an India flat with no broker: list on the no-brokerage portals yourself, screen the tenant on documents and employment, run police verification, sign a leave-and-licence agreement, register it where the state requires it, and take rent into your own NRO account with TDS handled by the tenant. What you cannot skip is somebody on the ground for viewings, handover and repairs. Removing the broker removes a commission, not the work.

Rent Out Your India Flat Without a Broker

A broker charges a month's rent to place a tenant and then has no further stake in what happens. That is the case for doing it yourself. The case against is that six of the eight steps below need a person at the flat, and a commission saved on placement is a poor trade against a tenant you screened from 7,000 kilometres away.

Here is the whole route, with the parts that need a person marked.

The eight steps

  1. Set the rent from real data, not from the society WhatsApp group. Check the listing portals for the same building and the same configuration, then discount for the delay when nobody can show the flat at short notice.

  2. List it. The no-brokerage portals take owner listings without a middleman. Which ones repay the effort, and what each one charges an owner, is at the portals guide. Photograph the flat dated and honest. A listing that oversells produces viewings that end at the door.

  3. Screen before you show. Ask for employer and role, PAN, Aadhaar, the last three months of salary credits, and the previous landlord's number. Call the previous landlord. That call is the single highest-value step in this list and almost nobody makes it.

  4. Viewings. Needs a person. Somebody has to open the flat, answer questions and read the prospective tenant in the room.

  5. Police verification. The tenant verification form goes to the local police station with the tenant's photograph and ID. Several states treat it as a landlord obligation with a penalty attached. The process, state by state, is at the police verification guide, and the exposure for skipping it is at the penalty page.

  6. The agreement. A leave-and-licence or rental agreement with the term, rent, escalation, deposit, notice period, lock-in, maintenance split and an inventory annexed. Where the state requires registration, the owner or an authorised attorney appears before the sub-registrar. This step needs a person, or a narrow POA, if you cannot travel.

  7. Rent and TDS. Rent goes to your NRO account. Because you are a non-resident landlord, the tenant deducts TDS under the non-resident provisions, which is a different section and a different rate from the resident case, and the tenant needs a TAN to do it. Get this wrong and the problem lands on you at filing, months after the money moved. Detail is at TDS on rent for an NRI landlord.

  8. The twelve months after. Needs a person. A leak, a society notice, a meter dispute, a late payment, an exit inspection and a deposit argument. A broker was never doing this part for you.

What removing the broker saves, and what it costs

Saves: one month's rent as placement commission, and a middleman whose incentive ended at signing.

Costs: the viewings, the handover, the verification run to the police station, the registrar appearance, and every repair for the next year. Somebody does that work. If it is a relative, you have swapped a fee for a favour, and a favour has no statement and no exit.

The honest comparison of the three arrangements is at property management company vs broker, and the day-to-day of running a tenancy from abroad is at managing tenants from abroad.

The three mistakes that cost the most

Skipping the previous landlord call. Documents verify identity. The previous landlord verifies behaviour.

No dated inventory at handover. Without photographs of the flat's condition on the day the tenant moved in, the deposit argument at exit has no evidence and you will lose it.

Letting the tenant handle TDS without checking. A tenant who does not deduct, or deducts under the resident section, leaves you with a filing problem and no credit for money you never received.

FAQ

Can an NRI rent out a flat in India without a broker? Yes. Listing, screening, agreement, police verification and rent collection can all be arranged without one. The steps that need a physical presence are viewings, handover, registration where the state requires appearance, and repairs.

Is it legal to rent out property in India while living abroad? Yes. A non-resident may let out property owned in India and receive rent into an NRO account. The rental income is taxable in India, and the tenant deducts TDS under the non-resident provisions.

Do I still need police verification if I found the tenant myself? Yes. The obligation attaches to letting the property, not to how the tenant was found, and several states attach a penalty to skipping it.

What does a broker do that a portal does not? Open the door. Portals produce enquiries. Somebody still has to show the flat, read the person, hand over on move-in day and answer the phone when the geyser fails.

Is a no-brokerage platform the same as having no broker? No. A no-brokerage platform removes the placement commission and replaces it with a platform fee or a percentage of rent for management. Read what its fee covers and, more to the point, how it bills repairs.

What the no-broker route costs in time

Owners underestimate this part, so here is the honest shape of it across a first tenancy.

Listing and photographs take an evening. Enquiries run for two to six weeks, and most of them go nowhere: the flat is too far from a metro, the budget was aspirational, the tenant wanted it furnished. Screening one serious candidate takes two hours of your own time across documents, the employer check and the previous-landlord call. Viewings take somebody's Saturday, more than once. Police verification is a form, a photograph and a trip to the station. Registration, where the state requires it, is an appointment and a queue.

None of that is difficult. All of it happens in Indian office hours, which is the middle of your night in San Francisco and the middle of your working day in Dubai.

When the no-broker route is the right call

It works when you have a real person on the ground with time and a reason to care: a parent in the same city, a sibling in the building, a tenant already in place who is renewing. It works when the flat is in a building with steady demand, because then the pipeline does the selling. It works when you can accept a longer vacancy in exchange for saving a month's rent.

It stops working when the flat is empty, the city is far from anyone you know, and the tenant screening is happening over WhatsApp at midnight. At that point the month of rent you saved is buying you a tenant nobody met in person, and that is the trade you are making whether you name it or not.

Want the ground work without the commission on rent? 66 MG Road places tenants from one month's rent and manages from 5% of rent, with vendor work billed at actuals with receipts and no commission on your rent. See pricing.

Saurabh Garg, founder, 66 MG Road

Sources

Information on this page is as on 2026-08-13. Rules, rates, deadlines and government portals change without notice, so verify against the official source before you act. This page is for information only. It is not tax or legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a qualified adviser who knows your position.