Real estate, REITs and InvITs
The asset most Indians own most of — and the two ways to own it without owning a building.
8 of 8 chapters published
Chapters
Beginner
- What you are buyingA property is three things bundled together — land, a structure, and a stream of rent you may never collect. Separating them explains almost every argument people have about whether property is a good investment.
- The costs nobody includesEntry costs are paid once and never recovered, holding costs run every year whether or not anyone lives there, and exit costs arrive when you are least able to negotiate. Together they decide whether a gain was real.
- Rent versus buy, properlyThe question is never "is rent wasted money". It is whether the whole cost of owning, less what you get back at the end, beats renting plus investing the difference — and the answer turns on how long you will stay.
Intermediate
- The home loan and what prepayment doesLeverage magnifies the return on your own money in both directions, early instalments are almost all interest, and since January 2026 a floating-rate home loan may carry no prepayment charge at all.
- REITsA listed trust that must hold mostly completed, rent-generating buildings and must pass at least ninety per cent of its distributable cash to you. The rules are the product — they are what make it different from a property company.
- InvITsThe same structure applied to roads, transmission lines and pipelines. The rules are nearly identical to a REIT's; what differs is the asset, and the difference that matters is that many of these assets expire.
Advanced
- Liquidity and the single-asset problemProperty cannot be sold in pieces, cannot be sold quickly without a discount, and for most households is a single undiversified bet funded with borrowed money. These are the same problem seen from three sides.
- Real estate in a portfolioThe last chapter of the subject. Property earns a modest yield plus whatever prices do, is the one asset most households already over-own, and the decision to buy a home is mostly not a financial one — which is fine, once it is said.