To buy or rent a house? Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath tells you what to do

Prices of real estate have seen a sudden spike ever since the Covid pandemic started becoming less prevalent. When it comes to the buy versus rent debate, Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath says he is betting on house prices going down in the long term. In a post on social media platform, Kamath wrote, “Looks like a short-term phenomenon; as long as you can #rent at 3 per cent and #housing loan rates are over 8 per cent, this won't work. If I had to bet on house prices going down vs rent going up to reach equilibrium, my bet is still on the former.”

According to some graphs shared by the entrepreneur and investor, house rents in India have been skyrocketing because of the imbalance caused in the demand and supply patterns. Data noted that supply has not been able to catch up in the post Covid scenario. According to real estate services firm, Anarock, the house inventory was pegged at 6.31 lakh in 2022 which was the lowest since 2014. 

Additionally, numbers revealed that Covid has acted as a major setback and high interest rate has discouraged builders to either take new projects or complete the existing ones. 

One of the graphs posted by Kamath noted that the work from office trend has also sparked a change and also pushed the prices of the real estate especially in cities like Bangalore and Pune. In addition, the demand for residential properties is also at an all-time high.

The Kamath brothers, besides being among the richest entrepreneurs in the country, are also among India’s top 10 philanthropists in their personal capacity. Their donations jumped 308 per cent to reach Rs 100 crore in FY22, making them the ninth-largest individual givers in India, according to the EdelGive Hurun Philanthropy List 2022.