For a long time, I believed what most middle-class families in India believed:
“Real estate never fails.”
I grew up seeing my father buy properties at prices that looked expensive at that time, but within 5 years he could see visible appreciation. Land was limited, apartments were fewer, and buyers had patience. Owning property itself was considered success.
But today, after nearly two decades of observing, buying, managing, renting, struggling, and sometimes getting stuck with properties, I feel the real estate game has completely changed.
Over the last 3–4 years, I have been seeing massive real estate supply everywhere across and .
Every highway has:
- plotted developments,
- gated communities,
- luxury villas,
- premium apartments,
- smart townships,
- “future city” marketing boards.
What shocked me was not the supply alone. It was the pricing.
Many properties today are priced in a way where:
- rental yield is weak,
- breakeven takes 7–10 years,
- resale becomes difficult,
- and liquidation is no longer easy.
I myself made mistakes.
Like many others, I also entered some “bubble inventory” thinking appreciation would continue endlessly. On paper, the projects looked attractive:
- premium brochure,
- clubhouse,
- launch offers,
- future development promises,
- metro stories,
- IT corridor stories.
But reality after handover became very different.
Some projects had:
- delayed completion,
- legal complications,
- builder-association conflicts,
- maintenance disputes,
- poor resale demand,
- or simply too much nearby supply.
One painful lesson I learnt is this:
Buying property is easy. Liquidating property is the real challenge.
Today, buyers prefer fresh inventory directly from builders because builders come with marketing, offers, interiors, EMI schemes, and “new project excitement.” A 7-year-old resale apartment suddenly looks old even if it is structurally good.
Land investments also became complicated. Litigation risk has increased heavily. Documentation verification itself has become a full-time process. Many layouts grow slowly for years because supply keeps expanding further outside the city.
At one point, I realized many people are not truly “real estate investors.”
They are actually:
long-term holders waiting for liquidity.
That changed my thinking completely.
Slowly, I started understanding that in today’s world, real estate works better when it creates cashflow instead of depending only on appreciation.
That is where my thinking evolved towards:
- rental-focused models,
- studio rooms,
- operational properties,
- service-oriented spaces,
- and ideas like turf + kiosk + utility-based businesses.
Today I strongly feel:
real estate alone is no longer wealth creation.
Real estate plus operations, cashflow, and utility creates wealth.
The old generation made money because they entered during scarcity.
This generation must survive in oversupply.
That changes everything.
AnandNataraj 