So today, I introduce myself as Property Decoder @ Ground Lens — A dedicated consumer centric knowledge platform built to decode how real estate really works. For a long time, I myself have faced a massive gap between what’s projected and what’s real in Indian ‘Real’ Estate. What began as simple curiosity gradually became a deeper purpose – to decode what lies beneath the surface-level real estate chatter – full of overhyped narratives, speculative sales pitches, cherry-picking bias, inflated claims, tailored data – often supplied as “knowledge” or “insights.” Here's why I had to start this 👇( 1/n)

Real estate brokers who came into the business around or after COVID have mostly seen only the upcycle. Many of them have never experienced what a real bear phase in real estate actually looks like. Now they will get to know, there is a reason why real estate is called an "illiquid asset".

How a commission capping in already a regulated product segment, is threatening the free market? If this is threatening the commissions incentivized sales distribution model, than let it be. Coz free market doesn't mean you are free to mis-sell something simply because it gives you a higher commission. The bigger problem with having no meaningful cap on commissions is that it incentivises distributors to sell what earns them more, rather than what is actually right for the consumer. And honestly, it may actually be good for the entire ecosystem, and ultimately for consumers, if such commission-driven players disappear and only those who can genuinely add value to the ecosystem remains.

If commissions can be capped in the primary real estate segment in India, making them very, very low.. although unlikely but most brokers, known as channel partners (just like insurance distributors), who sell only new builder projects will cease to exist... because most enter this business in the first place because of the highly lucrative commission proposition in comparison to secondary market. And if that happens, many real estate call centres primarily engaged in mis-selling will probably disappear too... So, scams would be much lesser, and even highly artificially inflated primary real estate could crash 📉 more than this to real valuation.

On one hand, builders and their brokers keep telling us that Gurgaon is becoming the next Dubai. On the other hand, Gurgaon is being cited by courts and urban planners with a warning to other states... "don't turn your cities into this..." But here Gurgaon's builder-broker ecosystem is actually winning, just check the another piece of news in the same image about the Aravalli forests continuing to disappear... So, the city is already turning into Dubai. If not infra-wise, then desert-wise at least.

Gurgaon is building footpaths but with no access to foot 😅 Waise toh.. footpaths don't exist in most places and where they do exist, they are either broken or encroached upon and wherever new footpaths are being built, getting to the footpath is itself a challenge. So... what exactly are we building these footpaths for?

So it's clear that civic upkeep is ultimately a matter of intent. And when our municipalities seem to have little intent to actually maintain the cities, why are the people responsible for doing that work drawing salaries from taxpayers? If this doesn't change, forget about seeing our country become developed by 2047, even 2097 could turn out to be an optimistic deadline.

World is talking and progressing around AI, but some people are still stuck in regional and language fights in the same country and even building cases to demand reservation in jobs in pvt sector on the basis of region/ languages...😅 But then realisation comes, the way AI is progressing, our country might need such people to remain occupied doing something atleast, even if they are the mostly lowly ones.

Goa's current real estate cycle should be a case study in how a market once relentlessly pitched and sold on "scarcity" can eventually end up making headlines for "price correction". Interestingly, they are now saying second-home sales and enquiries have fallen, that's why. BUT the truth is, 2nd home demand was never anywhere close to how it was projected (10x inflated) to investors. Moreover, they were given the false projections of continuous great AirBnB returns (without much efforts) or otherwise second home buyer will be waiting on its door to give them an exit. Forget about AirBnB returns, most are facing high vacancy issues, and even finding it hard to find 2nd or any XYZ home buyer. Truth is, they weren't there before, so they aren't there now. It was all created in meta world by 'reel estate' experts. Also, Goa doesn't have big base of end user buyers who can absorb this much excess inventory, that too anywhere in the name of Goa and at any vague pricing. Basically, all this frenzy was created by overexcited local builders from Delhi, Mumbai etc during the cycle by showing 2-3x land price increases while trapping numerous investors, only to justify highly overvalued properties through hollow narratives. Also for those who keep saying property prices only stagnate can now see how "price correction" has started making into the headlines... and that too in once "scarce" market...😅 But, importantly, correction % being reported right now may be nothing compared to what actual is there or could still come. Of course, the reason they are telling you about the correction is... ab toh le lo... buy the dip!😄 And it's not just Goa's story. Have seen the same "reel estate" experts pitching the similar stories to sell Mumbai, Gurgaon, Dubai, Dholera etc etc... but have stopped even talking about Goa like they never pitched this story. Now, imagine the realty check their investors are in for...

But this also tells you how the city could continue failing in its urban mess. Because the way developers plan urban areas, especially in India, is very different from how a 'real' urban planner would plan them, particularly when it comes to promoting non-motorised transport and reducing dependence on private vehicles. No issues... keep widening roads, upgrading junctions and building flyovers/underpasses, but without proper urban planning, they are able to just move congestion from 1 point to another, but not reducing it overall. And next junction will eventually choke, now with even more congestion, because upgrading mostly road infra while underbuilding and failing to promote other modes of commuting, no matter how many flyovers or underpasses are built, will never be enough to decongest our roads. Yes, some developers may build beautiful-looking roads around or infra within their projects. But they are not urban planners. Many builder fanboys may not like hearing this, but this is true, atleast in India.

Have seen many Gurgaon brokers saying on reels/posts that in 'lias' ultra-luxury projects, one get to network with billionaires in the lift or lobby. And somewhere, some billionaires don't even want to share lifts and lobbies with other residents ;)

In China, plots in industrial parks are meant for setting up factories, whereas in our country, they often become real estate investment assets. Whether production happening there or not, but overall growth looks solid due to investors gaining capital appreciation. And that is what matters the most. Don't know why people hate RE, but see how they are producing huge profits on industrial plots without ever manufacturing a single product on it. Is there any other lucrative investment product, which can beat this?

God knows how many such builder floors have been sold by local builders by marketing them as duplexes and even triplexes (by combining stilt+basements), often at a much higher premium. Many buyers may not even know the exact legalities surrounding such construction and are now facing the risk of demolition. But when this was illegal, why wasn't it stopped at the construction stage itself, before it was sold to unsuspecting buyers? Ultimately, who pays the price? The one who paid from their lifelong earnings, believing they were buying a legally approved home. Builders who built them and brokers who sold them have already exited, while those responsible for enforcing the rules... whole chain seem to have little accountability to bear for what was allowed to be built before the homebuyers even came into the picture. You know why? Because apparently, in our country, homebuyers are there to bear the consequences of everyone else's failures, apart from their own failure to blindly trust. So, suffer.

Friend who manages the realty fund division of a major pvt. bank told me that loan enquiries from real estate developers (in NCR) have now touched an all-time high in recent years. According to him, sales of under-construction projects continue to be much weaker than many developers expected and cancellations/payment defaults by buyers (read traders) in even sold out declared projects have started putting pressure on the cash flows of some builders projects. Many are now urgently looking for funding just to keep construction moving. Most are hoping for a revival during the upcoming festive season. But if sales don't improve, some developers who have launched projects far beyond their already-stretched funding and execution capacity could be among the first to face serious financial stress. And if that starts happening, it could further damage already-fragile market sentiment. So while picking up distressed packaged deal(s), as pitched by many experts in under-construction projects, make sure you're not trapped into a project that stays distressed for years.

People in Gurgaon may well be experiencing the same thing about its much celebrated corridor i.e. Golf Course Road 5-7 years from now. This road could be choked like hell once the 2 dozen+ residential projects, along with several office projects launched over the last 3-4 years around Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extn Road, start getting delivered and if this road remain being the major commuting link. Yes, upgrading Golf Course Extn Road and IFFCO-Sector 56 Road, along with building the Greater SPR, (although all in planning stages for years now) may help to some extent. BUT unless public transport and last-mile connectivity, including metro expansion connecting the Golf Course Extension area, are built properly and actively encouraged, Golf Course Road itself may never be the same. Because even today, it has changed a lot since when it was upgraded just few years ago, parts of it are already choked during peak hours every day, including entry to the projects with Rs. 50-100 crore flats! So for now, rather than predicting how much housing prices will increase in this corridor, it seems much easier to see traffic congestion getting multifold, giving the warning, that ever choked Golf Course Road might be making new headlines for entirely different reasons in coming years.

Since 2016, India's nominal GDP has almost doubled from around $2.2 trillion to over $4.15 trillion in 2026. But people living in India's major urban cities haven't felt the same and instead saw the cities crumbling in almost all quality of life indicators in the same period. So, there is an urgent need to make citizens actually experience the same growth, rather than letting it remain confined largely to rising stock markets and real estate capital appreciation. Otherwise, even these last few coping tools may eventually start coming under pressure too. If the country is not able to create new world-class cities, atleast make few existing ones that contribute to India’s growth the most into world-class.

And for last 4 days, so many finance experts have been debating endlessly over 0.4% UPI merchant fee everywhere...😅

Which major city in India are you supposed to settle in? In some, you get stuck in monsoon floods every year. In some, a 2-4 km journey can take 2-3 hours every day because of traffic. In some, breathing itself becomes a struggle for several months every year. In some, you struggle with water and power shortages in 2026. In some, public transport is so overcrowded that the daily commute becomes an endurance test. And in most, simply walking on the streets outside a gate, means dealing with broken or encroached footpaths, garbage, poor roads and chaotic traffic. And this is after buying insanely expensive luxury homes in gated communities, only to end up spending half our careers paying the EMIs, with the feel-good assumption that we can somehow escape India within India. But have we really escaped? Meanwhile, our dear office-bearers will continue living comfortably, enjoying the very cities whose problems they never seem to experience the way ordinary citizens do... because they still face little accountability and, instead, continue to get rewarded for not doing anything.

Some people associated this with a particular region or caste, but I deliberately avoided that framing because the uncomfortable truth is that this isn't limited to any one region, caste or religion. Look around and you will find such people more or less everywhere, whether it's breaking traffic rules, road rage, intimidation, or trying to impose their own local influence over others (...this is my city or state, do this or that or go away etc etc) So the real issue around us is the increasing rift between those who want to live their lives while abiding by the law to keep their life simple AND those who take pride in breaking the law or imposing their own vague rules. There is a segment of society that teaches their children to follow the law to its true spirit, be tolerant of differences and never get violent, while there are some who believes they can play with rules the way they want, even if illegal to enforce and only know to respond through violence, if questioned. And the segment who chooses not to fight back against wrongdoing is labelled weak. Worse, the segment doing wrong often sees it as a victory, which only reinforces this behaviour and encourages them to do it even more. That's why law-abiding citizens end up facing such situations repeatedly and are made to feel like the losers again and again. And if you look at it honestly, this friction is playing out in several places, especially with changing socio-economic character in urban areas. Every day, we are reminded that a lot has changed through new skyscrapers touching sky, but deep down a lot has never really evolved. And surprisingly, such behaviour continue to enjoy stronger and more powerful patronage in our country than those who choose to live their lives abiding by the law. So, this will not change until political patronage and communities (irrespective of caste, region or religion) publicly disown such practices, and the system actually starts punishing them. Because it's almost impossible to rewire someone's mindset through a short, heated engagement when they have been enjoying this kind of fanaticism and facing little or no consequences, moreover taking it as a sign of power SINCE LONG. Most of the time, it has a much higher chance of damaging you than changing them, even a bit.

I still remember a broker who had been working in Gurgaon for ~30 yrs now once telling me that, before all these offices and malls came up, they wouldn't go beyond MG Road after 5-6 PM for site visits, it wasn't considered safe. Instead of new wealth and development creating these issues, have actually given many locals an opportunity to build on the changing ecosystem and move with the times. But yes, there are still some who seem to carry the same old character despite the surrounding socio-economic environment having changed completely. So, in a way, people must thank a top builder whose vision brought in a much larger population of professionals and more civilised urban culture, pushing the rogue elements into a minority. Otherwise, who knows, Gurgaon might have been much worse today than it was back then.