Indian property in an Australian family court

By Parish Rao · 26 August 2026 · 6 minute read

If you are separating in Australia and there is property in India, that property is part of the pool. It does not matter that it sits eight thousand kilometres away, and it does not matter whose family originally bought it.

Why the Indian property is in scope

In an Australian family law matter the property pool includes assets held anywhere in the world. A flat in Mumbai, a plot in Punjab, a share in a family house counts the same as a house in Melbourne.

Both parties must give full and frank disclosure and file a financial statement setting out what they own. Leaving an Indian asset out is not a clever tactic. It is the kind of thing that damages your position when it surfaces, and it usually surfaces.

Where valuation becomes necessary

If both sides agree what the Indian property is worth, the court can work with that. Where they cannot agree, and in our experience they usually cannot, an independent expert valuation is needed.

This is the most common reason Australians contact us. Often it is the lawyer calling rather than the client.

The jurisdiction point

An Australian court frequently cannot make a binding order over land in India, because the property is outside its reach. What it can do is decide what that asset is worth and adjust the rest of the settlement to account for it.

That has a practical consequence. The valuation may have to work twice: in the Australian proceeding now, and in an Indian process later if anything has to be transferred or enforced here. We write with both readers in mind.

What the report has to contain

A report built only for an Indian audience will struggle in Melbourne, because it assumes knowledge the reader does not have. Ours carry:

• Plain English throughout, with Indian terms explained rather than assumed.
• The value in rupees and in Australian dollars, with the exchange rate and the date it was taken.
• Our Indian credentials explained, since a judge cannot weigh an expert whose qualification means nothing to them.
• Each ownership document described and, where needed, translated.
• Named comparable sales the other side can go and verify.
• A dated, photographed inspection proving somebody physically attended.
• A declaration that the expert's duty is to the court.

Which date

Often not today. Family law matters frequently turn on the value at separation, or at the date proceedings began. Ask your lawyer which date applies before ordering anything.

Past date valuations are routine for us. We reconstruct from the official rate archive of that year and registered sales from that period, and the report explains the reconstruction so it can be tested. More in valuing a property as it stood years ago.

Neither of you is in India

That is normal and it does not stop anything. One person on the ground opens the property: a relative, a caretaker, a neighbour, sometimes the tenant. Everything else runs on email and video calls.

The cheaper route, if you can take it

One jointly instructed valuer costs roughly half of two competing experts and carries far more weight, because neither side chose the number. Courts receive it better too. We accept joint instructions on written terms from both parties or both lawyers, with the report issued to everyone at the same time.

See how we prepare reports for courts outside India, read about divorce and maintenance valuation, or see our Australia page.