We live in an age of speed.
Prices update every second. Charts move. Apps notify.
Stocks, mutual funds, crypto, gold — everything has a graph now.
Real estate hasn't escaped this either. There are websites tracking monthly prices, registrations, absorption rates, and locality-wise trends.
These metrics are extremely useful — but not always for the person buying a home.
Why price-tracking rarely helps buyers
By the time a home buyer enters the market, prices have already absorbed most publicly available information.
What you're seeing on charts is history — not an edge.
Constant price tracking before buying often creates hesitation rather than clarity:
• "Prices are too high"
• "They keep increasing"
• "This feels manipulated"
In Indian cities especially, real estate behaves less like equities and more like gold — it preserves value more than it multiplies it.
Prices appear to keep rising largely because:
• Inflation is built in
• Land parcels change hands infrequently
• Distress sales are rare
The optics feel aggressive, even when real (inflation-adjusted) growth is modest.
Where people actually go wrong
Most serious buyers do their math reasonably well.
They calculate:
• EMIs
• Affordability
• Rent vs buy
• Leverage
• Cash flows
That's usually not the problem.
Where decisions fail is not calculation, but assumptions.
Common examples:
• "My income will rise steadily"
• "This property will double in a few years"
• "The builder will deliver around the RERA date"
• "I'll liquidate another asset in time"
These assumptions fail far more often than spreadsheets do.
Historically, long-term real (inflation-adjusted) property growth averages around 1–3% CAGR.
Some assets outperform — but that's the exception, not the rule.
A real-world pause moment
We once spoke with a family who had everything mapped perfectly.
• Strong income
• Clear savings
• Zero leverage
• Detailed affordability math
• Even a rent vs buy analysis
Their conclusion:
A 2BHK builder floor with a large hall fits us perfectly.
Before responding, we asked a few simple questions:
• Another child in a few years?
• Parents or in-laws staying occasionally?
• School commute changing daily routines?
That's when the pause happened.
The math was flawless.
The assumptions weren't.
The spreadsheet looked perfect. The lived experience wouldn't have.
What actually matters for self-use
For end-use buyers, tracking returns is secondary.
What matters more:
• Can I afford this comfortably?
• Will we outgrow this home sooner than expected?
• Does it solve daily life problems — school, commute, accessibility?
• Will this improve our overall happiness index?
Optimising returns rarely compensates for long-term living friction.
Investors aren't exempt either
Even for investors, math alone isn't enough.
Useful questions are simpler than most models suggest:
• Is there real rental demand, and why?
• Does this property solve a tenant's problem?
• Is post-handover support reliable?
• Could a family member realistically use this someday?
If the answer is "no" to most of these, yields alone won't save the decision.
When math truly matters
There are situations where detailed math is essential:
• Development projects
• Rental-heavy builds
• Leverage-dependent plans
Even here, failures usually happen not because the math was wrong, but because assumptions didn't hold:
• Loan terms changed
• Capital availability tightened
• Rental demand was overestimated
• Alternate land use wasn't evaluated
Property decisions don't fail on spreadsheets.
They fail when life doesn't behave the way the spreadsheet assumed.
Closing thought
Property is not just a financial instrument.
It is a commitment to:
• A lifestyle
• A location
• A version of your future
Numbers help.
But clarity comes from questioning assumptions — not polishing models.
Think beyond the spreadsheet.
Ready to think beyond the numbers?
We help you question assumptions and make decisions with clarity — not just calculations.
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