Buying a site in Bengaluru: how to check BDA or BMRDA-area layout approval before you pay

Rules and rates as of 22 October 2026.

Site advertisements around Bengaluru love two phrases: "BDA approved" and "BMRDA approved". Both are meant to reassure. Neither is worth anything until you have seen the sanction itself and checked that it covers the plot you are paying for. This explainer sets out which authority approves layouts where, what the law says a proper approval looks like, and the questions to ask before you hand over a token amount.

It does not cover khata letters or the plot-versus-flat decision; we have separate guides on both.

Who approves a layout, and where

Layout approval in Karnataka comes from the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 (Karnataka Act 11 of 1963), read with two Bengaluru-specific laws.

• Inside the city's planning area: the BDA. Section 2(7)(a)(i) of the planning Act names the Bangalore Development Authority as the planning authority "for the local planning area comprising the City of Bangalore". Section 32(1) of the Bangalore Development Authority Act, 1976 says no person shall form or attempt to form any extension or layout without "the express sanction in writing of the Authority".
• In the wider region: BMRDA and the local planning authorities. The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1985 defines the region as Bangalore District and Bangalore Rural District, plus any area the State notifies. BMRDA's listed functions are mainly regional: preparing a structure plan and co-ordinating town planning schemes. Section 10 lets it require its own permission for types of development it notifies.

Here is the catch. The BMRDA Act, as we read it, does not itself say that BMRDA approves individual layouts. Outside the BDA's area, layouts are generally sanctioned by the local planning authority for that area under section 17 of the planning Act. A 2015 Citizen Matters explainer listed bodies such as the Anekal, Nelamangala and Magadi planning authorities and BIAAPA around the airport. We could not open BMRDA's own website to confirm the current list, so ask the seller which body issued the sanction. Then ask that body to confirm it.

What a proper layout approval looks like

Section 17 was rewritten by Karnataka Act 38 of 2015, in force from 10 September 2015. The text on India Code sets up a two-step process.

1. Provisional layout. The owner submits a layout showing roads, plots, parks and civic amenity areas. The planning authority can sanction it as it is, sanction it with changes, or refuse it if it conflicts with the Master Plan.
2. Development works and relinquishment. Under section 17(2A), the owner must do the levelling, paving, draining, sewering, street lighting and water supply. Roads and parks are handed to the local authority, and civic amenity areas to the planning authority, by registered relinquishment deed, free of cost.
3. Final layout. Under section 17(2B), the planning authority issues the final layout plan only once the works are certified complete. Until then, "no Commencement Certificate or licence" can be issued for buildings on sites in the layout.

The last point matters most to a buyer. A site in a layout with only a provisional sanction is a site you cannot lawfully build on yet. Ask for the final layout plan, not just the provisional order.

Separately, section 14 requires every change of land use and every development in a Master Plan area to conform to the plan. Where agricultural land is being diverted, the proviso to section 14(2) requires the land-revenue permission as well. So a layout approval sits on top of a land-use conversion; it does not replace it.

Old layouts with unfinished works: the 2026 change

Before 2015, layouts could be approved and sites sold before the roads and drains were in. Many such layouts never got finished. The Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (L.A. Bill No. 15 of 2026), as passed by the Legislative Assembly, adds a new section 18-C. It covers layouts approved from 2005 until the 2015 amendment where development works are incomplete.

For these, the planning authority "shall grant final layout approval and release the remaining sites" after levying a penalty of 3% of the guidance value of the plots to be released, for each annual period, counted from the 2026 Act's commencement. It also validates penalties collected earlier under a 2018 government notification and bars refund suits.

We read the bill as passed by the Assembly on the Legislature's site. Reports say it became Karnataka Act 43 of 2026, but we could not open the gazette. The penalty falls on the developer, not the buyer, but it tells you something: some approved layouts still have sites held back pending works.

Worked example: what a 3% annual penalty means

This is illustrative. The guidance value below is an assumption, not the rate for any real area. Take a standard 30 ft by 40 ft site with an assumed guidance value of ₹3,000 per sq ft.

Formula: penalty = number of sites held back × site area × guidance value × 3% × number of annual periods.

• Site area: 30 × 40 = 1,200 sq ft (about 111.48 sq m)
• Guidance value of one site: 1,200 × ₹3,000 = ₹36,00,000
• Penalty for one site, one year: 3% of ₹36,00,000 = ₹1,08,000

Sites held back	Guidance value	Penalty, 1 year	Penalty, 3 years
1	₹36,00,000	₹1,08,000	₹3,24,000
10	₹3,60,00,000	₹10,80,000	₹32,40,000
40	₹14,40,00,000	₹43,20,000	₹1,29,60,000

For a developer holding back 40 such sites, finishing the works a year sooner is worth ₹43.2 lakh under these assumptions. The buyer's lesson is to check whether your site is among the released ones, and whether the seller's title to it depends on a release that has not happened.

Where RERA fits

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 covers plotted layouts. Section 2(zn) includes "the development of land into plots" in a real estate project. Section 3(1) bars a promoter from advertising, booking or selling plots in a planning area before registering the project with the state authority. Section 3(2)(a) exempts projects of 500 sq m or less, or eight apartments or fewer.

Section 11(3)(a) requires the promoter, at booking, to make available the "sanctioned plans, layout plans, along with specifications, approved by the competent authority". So for a new layout from a developer, the RERA registration page and the sanctioned layout plan should tell the same story. If a large new layout is being sold with no Karnataka RERA registration, ask why.

Questions to ask before you pay

• Which authority sanctioned the layout: the BDA, or which local planning authority? Get the order number and date.
• Is there a final layout plan, or only a provisional one?
• Is this site number on the approved plan, and is it a released site?
• Were roads, parks and civic amenity areas relinquished by registered deed?
• For a new layout: what is the Karnataka RERA registration number?
• Was the land converted to non-agricultural use, and does the order cover this survey number?

Take the answers, and copies, to a property lawyer in Bengaluru. Then confirm them with the authority's office yourself, not through the seller's agent. The BDA has in the past published lists of unauthorised layouts, according to press reports; ask the authority whether your layout is on one.

Limits of this guide

The India Code text of the planning Act we read is consolidated only up to the 2015 amendment. Later changes to section 17 may exist; a 2025 panchayat bill refers to a section 17(2-E) that is not in that text. Have your lawyer read the current section before relying on any single sub-section.