Thanks Shreedhar. Noted. It's a technical subject, yes. Important nonetheless. Tried to keep it simple to the extent possible and accessible with explanations for many terms and processes. Will try to do better.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Elcid also has two subsidiaries - Murahar Investments and Suptaswar Investments that have stake in Asian Paints. Together, it comes to about 4.3% stake

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thanks Biswadip.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Hi Manoj. True, at the end of the day, when it comes to investment advice, it's caveat emptor. But atleast, with RIAs, there are guardrails that offer some recourse and redressal. With many finfluencers, it seems like a Wild West now. 1.) On your point of sponsorship not necessarily meaning collusion, the story highlights that disclosures of sponsorships, compensation and conflicts of interest are necessary - as required by Sebi regulations. This applies across media - social, print, TV, etc. The problem seems much more acute in social media and with finfluencers now. 2.) On the design and composition of stock market benchmarks, we had written about it last year in this story https://the-ken.com/story/nse-bse-and-the-benchmark-blues/ But this is a different problem altogether and waiting for it to be solved before taking up other ones may not be right. 3.) Youtubers sure deserve credit when they put out good education videos that help increase market participation. But the line between education and advice has blurred. And between good advice and bad advice even more. When finfluencers move into advisory territory, they should play by the rules. As Nithin Kamath of Zerodha puts it in the story, "Many investors come into the market due to wrong expectations set by some finfluencers, and that’s problematic. When influencers are educating, it’s okay. But when they are actively advising, be it stocks or any other financial product or nudging people to buy or sell, then some regulation or some kind of licence requirement makes sense." A bad return experience could see new investors exit the market permanently. YouTube's algorithm may have problems, but not sure if that should lead finfluencers to put out content that's not good for their followers. Water finds its own level.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thank you Abhishek. Yes, a deep dive into demand generation across city categories and micro-markets will reveal more insights. According to industry sources, the top 8 cities in the country contribute to 75% of the builder market in the country.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thank you Deepesh. Will read your book.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thanks Saurabh. We used data for the 8 major cities compiled by reputed real estate researchers and consultants such as Liases Foras and Knight Frank. The prices are essentially the weighted average home prices of unsold stock in builder projects across these cities. For micro-market data in these cities, we used data from realty portal Magicbricks. We have tried to address your query in today's Ka-ching! newsletter where we wrote "You could argue that a city-wide average price hides more than it reveals. Especially in mega-metros such as Mumbai and Delhi where a vast swathe of surrounding areas also go into the average price calculation. The location and/or property-type mix in builder projects may have also varied over those years. But industry executives I spoke to say that the city-wide average price is a fair, feasible measure, with the distribution of projects not changing much during this period. In short, it allows for comparisons across time periods. That said, even a comparison of micro-market home prices sourced from realty portal Magicbricks reveals a similar picture." Below is a link to the Ka-ching! story. https://the-ken.com/kaching/a-reality-check-on-realty-investments/ We corrected the typo from Kandivali to Kandivali (East) in the graphic.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thanks Gagan. Data for markets other than Tier 1 is not being compiled/published regularly. Also, according to industry sources, the top 8 cities in the country contribute to 75% of the builder market. Agree that not all buyers are salaried, but the story does not talk of salaried and self-employed buyers; the market dynamics impact everyone. We wrote another story today in Ka-ching! on residential real estate as an investment. We looked at returns over the past decade or so, and compared it with equity and debt. Here is the link to the story. https://the-ken.com/kaching/a-reality-check-on-realty-investments/

Anand Kalyanaraman

Hi Rajiv, we wrote another story today in Ka-ching! our weekly newsletter on fintech and personal finance, on residential real estate as an investment. We looked at it from the returns perspective over the past decade or so, across major cities and micro-markets in these cities. The returns don't look good. Here is the link to the story. https://the-ken.com/kaching/a-reality-check-on-realty-investments/

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thank you Deepesh for the appreciation and insights. We wrote another story today in Ka-ching! our weekly newsletter on fintech and personal finance, on residential real estate as an investment. We looked at it from the returns perspective over the past decade or so, across major cities and micro-markets in these cities. The returns don't look good. Here is the link to the story. https://the-ken.com/kaching/a-reality-check-on-realty-investments/

Anand Kalyanaraman

Indeed, Manish! Interesting times :) Yes, many factors led to the perfect conditions that gave a leg-up to the Indian residential realty market after the Covid devastation. And these are now giving way to a perfect storm that could rattle the house.

Anand Kalyanaraman

Thanks Charan for the interesting points. Including the one on boys not able to find brides unless they have their own accommodation. This is changing though, I guess, at least in the major cities :)

Anand Kalyanaraman