In the land of the Blind....

Hi there! Starting off with this interesting proverb as it rightly reflects the situation of the average home buyer in India. The real estate industry is so integral to the economy and yet so opaque that even the most intelligent consumers feel blind as they go about making a purchase and take this big decision only based on inputs from Family/Friends, Local brokers and the Developer’s marketing material.

As oft quoted, the biggest aspiration for the average Indian is to own his/ her home one day. This is even more true post the COVID pandemic. A place where they can stay safe, build memories, families and great lives. They invest a large part of their savings on fulfilling this dream. As this is the biggest purchase an average consumer will ever make, the importance of this aspiration is amplified multifold. Because you can only make this decision in your life time, If it goes well, you get lucky, if it doesn’t, the Buyer’s remorse could be extremely painful.

The blame for this cannot be pinned onto one single person or entity but it is a result of a multitude of factors such as; archaic laws, shortsighted politicians, an inefficient bureaucracy, corrupt planning bodies and a few bad apples in the industry who have taken the system and the consumers for a ride for the longest time. I’m not saying there are no good projects out there, i’m saying there is a lot of expertise and luck the average home buyer should have, to ensure he is able to sort through the marketing cacophony and find these projects. However this is difficult given the general lack of regulations and access to information that exists in the market today. Even if the information is available, the ability to interpret and analyze the same is missing.

So what really impacts the home buyers as they embark on this exciting but perilous journey? For this we will have to dig deeper into the various aspects in the value chain of residential real estate development. Starting from City Development Plans, to how lands are acquired, the approval process, the financing systems, the design process, the marketing and business strategies, the planning, construction and contracting strategies, pricing, infrastructure, neighbourhoods, utilities and market dynamics of demand and supply and a lot of other parameters.

We would like to shed light on the above topics in my upcoming blogs and try and help open the eyes of the home buyers so that they can make educated choices that could transform the home buying journey into a pleasant and joyful experience!

Meanwhile, if you are in the process of searching for a home, and are looking for unbiased expertise and insights, you should definitely check out www.propsoch.com, a unique initiative that provides detailed reports on residential projects in India.