Refining old adage to live smart

By Gautam Thapar
Thinking of buying a home? Compare the scenario of past versus the present in major metropolitan cities from the world over and you might figure out how achievable a goal it was. Today, we belong to an era where buying a residential property is so expensive that it corrodes an aspirational middle-class buyer’s income at all economic levels. The soaring prices of even a decent size accommodation somewhat explain why the sales over the last few years have come to a standstill.

As reported by real estate consultants, there are over seven lakh unsold homes in eight biggest cities in India, primarily due to massive overbuilding indicating that the supply is far more than the prevailing demand. There is a clear disconnect between what the real estate builders are building and what the potential consumers want.

With owning a home becoming a distant reality every day, renting a residential property is picking pace across all metros as well as Tier-2 and 3 cities due to better job opportunities and inflow of population from nearby smaller towns and villages. Interestingly, a substantial number of people are eschewing the conventional wisdom of buying a home to start building an equity and opening up to the thought of renting a good size accommodation in a great location at a fraction of the total cost. Considering the way the rental math works out, it indeed makes tremendous sense to rent your dream house and live peacefully.

The idea of renting synchronises perfectly with the millennial and the newer generation along with the baby boomers and the Generation X, who are also opening up to this revolutionary idea of living. While there are a number of reasons for them to feel this way, their strong desire for flexibility and mobility tops the list. The new generation value experiences over material possessions. Accordingly, when a new job opportunity or a new adventure calls from a different side of the country or state, they want the liberty to be able to answer easily without being tied to a mortgage. Moreover, in many cases, the lifetime’s cost of leasing or living in a rented home is much cheaper than cost of buying a similar home. Blame it all on the cost of down payment, pocket-heavy monthly EMIs on home loans, taxes and hidden charges like the maintenance costs and much more.

Going forward, as a majority of the young and successful population is willing to have its slice of the ‘Plush Urbane Indian Lifestyle’, residential leasing is poised to be the way ahead. While the trend has just begun, it is still at a very nascent stage as there is only a limited structure for this kind of accommodation present in India, unlike matured economies like UK, Singapore and Dubai. Although builders like Thapar House have already stepped in to break all conventions and creating a new benchmark in the home-leasing space through their best-in-class luxury homes at affordable rates, the country needs more such organised players to meet the housing woes of a rapidly urbanizing India.

The Arthah, a ‘residential project’ by Thapar group, is a property in Vaishali that provides in-house amenities such as modern wooden flooring, convenient modular kitchen, high end bathroom fittings and much more. The apartment also provides a new meaning with its prime location, 27-floor tower, rooftop swimming pool, club house, luxurious gym, tennis and badminton court, children play area and split-level parking spaces etc. The main focus of this project lies in providing quality at best prices to homebuyers.

(The author is the CEO of Thapar Builders Pvt. Ltd., one of the leading affordable luxury developers dealing in residential, commercial and group housing projects. He spearheads the sales, marketing, and finance verticals of the firm. In 2008, he started a firm The Hospitality & Estates Limited that owns, operates, and manages hotels, camping sites and short-stay accommodation. In 2009, he joined hands with his brother to reinvent Thapar Builders as a large real estate developer, and has since then been involved in growing the firm and taking it to new heights.)

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