It is very difficult to understand product pricing in Mumbai. One doctor in a Mumbai suburb recently sold off his practice – well he actually sold off his shop. It is not a very big shop…and now an ice-cream parlor has been set up there. Got chatting….with a couple of friends and found that the [...]
There is a huge real estate mafia which holds prices unrealistically high in Mumbai. I have no grievances – but it is mispricing all the services available in Mumbai. A trust which owns a school in Santacruz, Khar, Ghatkopar or Chembur (just 4 suburbs) can charge whatever fee it wants. Does it mean the teachers [...]
Doctors normally start their practice and the money starts coming in – first in trickles and then as a flood. Over enthusiastic accountants and ignorant doctors are a dangerous combination – they keep the doctor’s income low so that lesser tax can be paid. Suddenly if the doctor wants to set up a bigger practice, [...]
I have written many pieces on ‘buy or rent real estate’. I have got feedback saying ‘If my father had also bought a flat…I would not have bought’. That may not be the right argument. It is a person’s migration from one level of strata to the other one which is marked by ‘buying’ a [...]
There are many comments and emails asking me why I am against gold and against real estate. Well I am not against gold, and neither against real estate. However what do you call a market which is completely dependent on new investors bringing their fresh money. Well some people call it a Ponzi scheme. I [...]
Prior to World War II most people in the world were happy living in rented houses. This gave rise to concepts like ‘pagdi’ where you paid a sizeable deposit and a small rent. Mumbai used to be full of such properties . In fact this gave rise to sayings like ‘Fools build (buy?) houses, Wise [...]