A second home in Goa: what to know before you buy a villa

Buying a second home in Goa means taking on architecture that is easy to admire and paperwork that is difficult to read. Many of the best houses stand on land whose records reach back to Portuguese rule, and the state's land law has its own vocabulary. Nothing in it is unmanageable, but a villa bought on the strength of a pool and a verandah, with the due diligence left until later, is a mistake we have seen families regret. We run our Goa second-homes work as a separate practice for this reason.

Where to buy a second home in Goa: North or South

North Goa, in practice Bardez and Pernem, is where most of the market for villas is. It has the villages with Portuguese-era houses and a visible café and restaurant culture, and since Mopa airport opened in 2023 its northern reaches are quicker to reach. It is also busier, and the choice of village matters more than the choice of district.

South Goa is quieter, with long, open beaches. It suits families who want a house that is genuinely away, and who accept that fewer services are close at hand.

Five villages

• Assagao is the best known of the quiet villages: old houses, mature trees, narrow lanes. It is also among the most expensive.
• Siolim sits on the Chapora river, with a settled village feel and easy access to the northern beaches. Vianaar's La Arvisa, six villas, is here.
• Moira is known for its Indo-Portuguese houses and a slower pace, with prices that have historically been lower than Assagao's.
• Aldona lies along the Mapusa river, inland and green, with a strong sense of village life.
• Parra is wooded and residential, a village of lanes and older houses that Vianaar has also built in.

These are our impressions, and plots vary within a village more than between villages. Visit in more than one season.

Title and land: the questions that matter

Goa's land records are different from most of India's. In our experience the questions below account for most problems.

• Communidade land. Village communidades historically held land collectively. Whether a plot has ever been communidade land, and whether any rights were properly extinguished, is a matter for a Goa advocate who can read the Portuguese-era records.
• Tenants and mundkars. A mundkar is a person who lives in a house on another's land, with statutory protection under the Goa Mundkars (Protection from Eviction) Act, 1975. A sale does not remove those rights. Check the tenancy and mundkar entries in the survey record (Form I and XIV) and ask the Mamlatdar for confirmation. The Goa government said in February 2025 that it aimed to settle all pending mundkar cases by December 2026; a villa near an unresolved case is a different purchase from one without.
• Conversion and the sanad. Land in Goa is treated as agricultural until converted under section 32 of the Land Revenue Code, and the sanad is the proof. Reports indicate that the authorities have said building permission should not be issued without one. Make sure the sanad covers the plot as built.
• Coastal Regulation Zone. Construction near the shore, and along tidal rivers, is restricted by the CRZ rules. The coastal zone plan under the 2019 notification has been slow to finalise, and the high-tide line and no-development zone can be disputed. For any plot near water, check the classification with the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority.
• Marital property and succession. The Portuguese Civil Code still governs, so both spouses of a seller will often need to sign, and inheritance must be traced to the last heir.

Developers, factually

A number of Goa's villa projects are by branded developers. Isprava's Corvero Vaddo, in Pernem, is a gated cluster of nineteen villas with possession expected in 2027. Vianaar, whose La Arvisa is in Siolim, builds Indo-Portuguese villas in small clusters. The Chapter, a label of the Isprava Group, has Volume 003 in Sircaim, with twenty-four furnished villas. Each is registered with Goa RERA, and the registration number and status should be checked on the Goa RERA portal before any payment. Buyers abroad should also read our NRI checklist, since agricultural land cannot be bought by an NRI. A registered project is not a substitute for title diligence on the land it stands on.

Rental programmes and yields

Developer materials often cite gross yields of ten per cent or more. We cannot source those to an independent study. The most useful public benchmark is Savills India, which in June 2024 put second-home rental yields in Goa at roughly 5 to 8 per cent, and which reported villa capital values of about ₹25,500 per sq ft for its Grade A stock in the second quarter of 2024. Press reports of a later Savills note describe villa prices as largely flat in the first half of 2025, after a rise of more than 30 per cent between 2022 and 2024.

Treat gross yield as a ceiling. Operating costs, management fees, vacancy outside the peak season, and the need to register a rental with Goa's tourism authorities all reduce what reaches the owner. We would underwrite a villa as a home that earns something when you are away, not as an income asset.

Monsoon and maintenance

From June to September the rain is heavy, and a Goa house shows its construction in those months. Look at drainage, the roof, damp in walls and cupboards, and how the pool and garden fare unattended. Salt air and humidity are hard on metal and timber. A house that is empty for months needs a reliable caretaker and a maintenance contract, and the cost of both belongs in your budget from the start.

If you are weighing this decision, we would be glad to talk it through, privately.