Some Real Estate Facts To Mull Over

(1)Long term returns from residential real estate

Robert Shiller, by tracking the US home prices data from 1890 concluded that in the longer run, property prices grew at an annualised return of around 3%, just keeping pace with inflation.Housing price rises could not outstrip inflation in the long term because, except for land restricted sites, house prices would tend toward building costs plus normal economic profit.

I have no such data for India.But here is what I can attest to:an ancestral house acquired 120 years ago for 6000 Rupees is now valued at 1.2 crores-an annualized return of about 6%.I think this is close to the long term inflation rate in India.

(2)Is home ownership all that it is touted to be?

In a poorer country like Bangladesh, 90% of the houses are owner occupied. Whereas in a richer country like Switzerland, only 33% of the houses are owner occupied.

Europeans are more comfortable with renting compared to Anglo Saxons and we Indians need to decide whose model we choose to follow.Read what Niall Ferguson has to say about property ownership. Read more of this post