A simple, mild and environmentally friendly one-pot aqueous synthesis route using urea devoid of surfactant and chelating agents is demonstrated for the first time to fabricate high yield crystalline uniform hexagonal prism-shaped weakly magnetic α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals. As synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals show ferromagnetic behavior with coercivity values of 0.8 and 0.2 T at 5 and 300 K, respectively. The urea and reaction temperature plays a crucial role, regulating the morphology and the size.