Joint development agreements, explained for buyers
Most Bengaluru apartment land wasn't bought by the builder. It was contributed by a landowner in exchange for a share of what gets built. What that means for your title, and what to check.
A large share of Bengaluru's apartment land was never bought by the builder whose name is on the hoarding. It was contributed by a family, or several, who owned the site — in exchange not for cash, but for a share of what eventually gets built on it. That arrangement is a joint development agreement, and if you don't know it's there, you can end up asking your lawyer the wrong question about title.
The basic shape of a JDA
A landowner holds a site and doesn't want to build on it themselves — no construction expertise, no appetite for the approvals process, no wish to carry the cost. A developer wants the site but doesn't want to pay the full market price for the land upfront. A joint development agreement solves both problems: the landowner contributes the land, the developer contributes the construction, the approvals and the marketing, and the two split the result — usually the built area itself (an "area-sharing" JDA, say 55% of saleable area to the developer and 45% to the landowner), sometimes a share of sale revenue instead, sometimes a mix of both.
No cash changes hands for the land at the outset. That's the whole appeal of the structure, for both sides — and it's also why, when you buy a flat in a JDA project, the seller of record and the person who legally holds the underlying land are not always the same party.
Why RERA treats this as your business, not just theirs
The Act's definition of "promoter" is written broadly enough to catch exactly this arrangement. It includes anyone who "acts himself as a builder, coloniser, contractor, developer, estate developer... or claims to be acting as the holder of a power of attorney from the owner of the land" — and its explanation goes further: where the person who constructs the building and the person who sells the apartments are different people, "both of them shall be deemed to be the promoters and shall be jointly liable... for the functions and responsibilities specified under this Act."
In a JDA project, that means the landowner can be, and often should be, a co-promoter on the RERA registration alongside the developer — not a silent party in the background. If something goes wrong — construction stalls, money is misapplied, the Section 18 obligation to refund or compensate an allottee comes due — that liability isn't necessarily contained to a single developer entity that may or may not have the assets to answer for it.
What to check before you sign
Is the landowner named on the registration, or disclosed in the filing at all? If the project's RERA page names only the developer with no mention of the underlying JDA, that's a gap worth asking about directly.
What is the share, and which share is your unit in? A JDA typically splits the building into a "developer's share" and a "landowner's share." Units in the landowner's share are sometimes retained by the family, sometimes sold independently, sometimes through a different set of agreements entirely. Knowing which share your unit sits in tells you who the actual seller is, and whether the sales office you're dealing with is authorised to sell it at all.
Is the JDA registered, and is there a General Power of Attorney behind it? A document creating or transferring rights in land is required to be registered under the Registration Act, 1908 once the value crosses a low statutory threshold — an unregistered JDA is a weaker instrument to rely on. Developers typically also hold a GPA from the landowner authorising them to enter into agreements for sale, execute documents, or in some structures sell units outright on the landowner's behalf; your lawyer should confirm both the JDA and the GPA are registered and still in force, not revoked.
Is the developer's share encumbered? A developer can mortgage their share of a JDA project to fund construction — a normal and common practice — but that mortgage attaches to the units in their share until it's discharged. An encumbrance certificate for the specific unit, not just the project generally, is the way to check this rather than assume it.
Does the RERA registration cover the whole site, or only a phase? JDA projects are frequently developed and registered in phases. A clean record on an earlier phase doesn't automatically extend to a later one built under a separate registration on the same larger site.
This is exactly the kind of split — who owns the land versus who is selling you the flat — that DOSL's land-title check looks for directly: where a project's filing states a JDA share, it's treated as a distinct fact from full ownership, because a promoter holding only part of the underlying land under a joint development agreement carries a different title risk than one who owns the site outright.
This is general information, not legal advice. Have a lawyer trace the chain from the landowner's original title, through the JDA and any GPA, to the specific agreement for sale you are being asked to sign, before you pay anyone.