Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Last Friday, my colleague Prajakta and I did a data story on residential real estate in India. ICYMI, you can check it out here. 

Young Indians who were preparing to buy homes are facing the latest swing in the housing market’s long-running see-saw game. Inflation and interest rates are rising, and this could slow down or even derail demand recovery—which is a train that had just started chugging along. 

We also looked at the realty sector’s contrasting fortunes pre- and post-2014. “Home prices, which had been steadily increasing since the early 2000s, flattened after 2014—investors didn’t make much, but end-users’ interest spiked,” we wrote. 

We also included many charts in our piece, such as on the age profile of home buyers, affordability, and macro and micro market trends.  

But not this one.

So, today, that’s what we’ll break down: residential real estate as an investment, and whether it’s proved to be a worthwhile one.

A reality check on realty investments

Before we parse what’s been going on, let’s first take a look at that chart again.