[ppc_rgs]

I cannot vote, but would be in the Buy group.

Back in 2010, bought a 2BHK flat in Central Bangalore, thinking we will live there forever. Just in 4 years, I had to move to another city. Rented out the flat and stayed in another city for 3 years. In the mean time, foreclosed the home loan in 2015, so the rent became passive second income, which was not utilized for our regular monthly expenses.

Fast forward to H2-2020, I'm living in Coimbatore. We decided it is best for the family and kids to stay in Coimbatore, at least until the kids complete 12th standard. If i have to move to another city for job requirements, we all agreed that i will go alone and with hybrid working, I can be at home for at least 2 weeks in a month. This is a compromise, but one that we are willing to take. With this thought, we built our home, heavily customized to our needs (ok, and our wants too); moved in Mar2022. As I type this, sitting in my cozy home office, I'm calm and content. This feeling is priceless that one can never get in a rented place. Dare I say our productivity increased as well.

Beyond maths, there are several intangible benefits of owning a home. For all we know, those who wrote that article might well be sitting in the comfort of their own home.

I believe that, in life we need to give/leave something to get something. Opportunity cost in financial terms. As long as we are aware of that cost and are willing to pay to get our need, all is well.

[vishnurp99]

Quite an interesting topic. Looking back Renting has worked for me so far.

This has enabled me to move across cities & countries quite easily. I come from a tier 2 town in Kerala which still has good quality of water, air, schooling and general amenities like shopping malls etc. and also reasonably good job opportunities in places like ISRO & Tech companies & the govt.

My parents pushed me to buy a house/apartment when i started working around 20 years back but I held off from that. In hindsight, this was the right thing to do. This enabled me to work in many different cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, NY, Mooresville, Boston, Hamburg etc. without the hassle of thinking about a property, renting it out, selling it etc. This also allowed me to go for a mid-career MBA and invest significant money in the stock market which looked like a horrible decision during the pandemic but thankfully I didn't exit.

My first real estate investment was a land parcel in an upcoming area around 10 years back within walking distance of a local tech park. That has space for say 5 independent houses or so but I never constructed a house there because I didn't see an opportunity to settle down in my home town without severely curtailing my mobility for professional opportunities. I brought an apartment recently in case we wanted to move away from my individual house(parent's place) in my home town which is in a prime locality.

I currently live in Germany. Germans don't usually buy houses at all because laws are in favour of the tenant. I see many people who have been living in the same house for 10-20 years. It's almost impossible to kick a tenant out. I might still buy something here because the property prices have decreased off late but it will probably not be a financially savvy decision.

All in all, my suggestion would be to wait for 10-15 years into your career to buy a house in India. If you are in an engineering or management focused role, you will get a lot more exposure & opportunities if you don't tie yourself to a location/country.

When interest rates was close to zero, it would have made sense to buy in Europe or USA but those days are long past. Now it just doesn't make sense to buy a house early on in your career in my humble opinion.

[facelyft]

Originally Posted by facelyft

This has been our biggest dilemma since a year or so.

Quick update:
June 2024: Moved into a nearby small 2 BHK flat to ensure that the property can be presented to buyers in a professional manner. Family was also relieved that they don't have to make everything presentable every single day.

A month later; sold our property. Buyer negotiated hard. I obliged many of his requests.

3 months is a good amount of time to assess a new property. After moving from 3000 odd sft house to a 900 sft flat; we are happy that we sorted many of priorities.

I shall share many more updates in the coming months.