The Maharashtra government is preparing to introduce a new law that will enable the use of blockchain technology in the real estate sector, marking one of the state’s most significant digital governance initiatives for the property market. The proposed legislation aims to create a legal framework for blockchain-based property transactions, digitise land records, improve transparency in ownership, reduce disputes and curb fraud arising from forged or tampered property documents.
What will the blockchain technology enable?
The proposed law will lay the foundation for maintaining land and property records on a blockchain platform, where every transaction is recorded in a secure, time-stamped and tamper-resistant digital ledger. Unlike conventional databases that a single authority can alter, blockchain stores records across a distributed network, making unauthorised changes extremely difficult. This is expected to strengthen confidence in property ownership records while reducing the scope for fraudulent transactions, according to media reports.
How will it help?
According to Maharashtra government officials, land ownership disputes, duplicate sales, forged title documents and delays in verification continue to be among the biggest challenges in India’s real estate sector. Homebuyers, developers and financial institutions often spend considerable time and resources verifying ownership records before completing a transaction.
By digitising these records on blockchain, the government hopes to make title verification faster, more reliable and significantly more transparent, officials said.
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The proposed legislation is also expected to facilitate digital verification of ownership history, enabling buyers, lenders and government agencies to trace the chain of property ownership more efficiently. Every change in ownership, mortgage or encumbrance could be recorded permanently on the blockchain, creating an auditable history that cannot easily be manipulated. Such a system could also reduce litigation arising from conflicting ownership claims and minimise opportunities for document forgery, media reports said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the administration to draft the Maharashtra Digitisation and Exchange of Land Token Assets Act. He instructed the setting up of a committee comprising SEBI, BSE, NSE and experts and experienced persons in the field to formulate a comprehensive law, according to Times of India report.
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“The value of real estate will be increased by tokenising them through the blockchain method. For this, the laws, rules and practices currently existing in the world should be studied. Maharashtra is the first state in the country to propose such a law,” Fadnavis was quoted as in the report.
“In the current process, whether it is a purchase and sale transaction or the process of providing loan collateral to banks, it is time-consuming. If this entire process is digitised and brought in the form of tokens, it will bring dynamism. Also, the property owner can get great benefits by identifying the hidden value of their property,” said Fadnavis.