High taxes, high interest rates and high property prices pose biggest challenges in housing
Mumbai: The inaugural issue of the Ipsos Housing Monitor shows at least 1 in 2 Indians (56%) think India’s housing is on right track; while 1 in 2 global citizens on the contrary said their housing is on wrong track, with citizens of 23 of 30 markets expressing this pessimistic viewed about their markets.
Further, majority of urban Indians (75%) were seen to be happy about their housing situation.
Owning a home, everyone’s dream
6 in 10 Indians aspired to own their own home, with some markets displaying a much greater need for home ownership, especially Hungary (88%), Indonesia (86%) and 7 in 10 global citizens (73%). Further, home ownership was seen to symbolize security with more number of Indians believing that it was hard to feel secure in life in the absence of one’s own home (58%). Though paradoxically citizens also felt that there was far too much obsession around owning a property (59%).
Interestingly, even 58% of renters aspired to own their own home. Alarmingly, 93% renters in Indonesia. Though 1 in 2 renters in India were of the view that they would never be able to afford to buy a home, laying emphasis on owning a home being out of reach for the majority of citizens.
And to further add to their woes, property prices were seen to be increasing, but Indians did not seem miffed with the escalation of property prices, even when 46% Indians believed that property prices were higher than what they were 12 months ago. And 1 in 2 Indians (50%) expected the property prices to further escalate in the next 12 months. In fact, 48% of urban Indians perceived the rising cost of housing to be good for them (highest globally) and 47% felt the rising cost of housing was good for the country.
Explaining this trend, Amit Adarkar, Ipsos India CEO said,“Home ownership is also significant in India as it is an appreciating asset and buying a house is also seen as an investment opportunity; and hence, rise in prices of housing is not frowned upon, as it fetches them large gains, overtime. It is not surprising for India to be placed highest globally, endorsing rise of property prices.”
Citizens advocate affordable housing
Urban Indians emerged strong advocates of affordable housing in the country. There was a dominant view that housing would become affordable only if new houses were built every year. And 53% Indians said they would support construction of more affordable homes in the country. Though citizens expected new affordable homes to spring up in the next few years and with 58% of citizens felt affordable housing was already available for purchase in their local area (which was highest globally).
Home ownership, not a cakewalk
Inflation was seen to add a lot of pressure on citizens, with 1 in 2 urban Indians stating to be concerned about the repayment of mortgage and rent in the present and in the next 12 months.
Further, owning a home seemed an impossible proposition for at least 59% of Indians polled, with the overriding feeling that even if they work hard and get good jobs, they would have a hard time getting into the right kind of housing. Similarly, 71% global citizens held this view and some nations had alarmingly high concern and skepticism especially the citizens of Hungary (84%), Netherlands (80%) and Argentina (80%), where owning the right kind of housing seemed impossible. And younger generation felt more under pressure with 58% of those aged under 35 years believing it was harder for people their age to buy or rent a home to settle down, unlike their parents’ generation. Ideal home
For urban Indians, their ideal home preference was an inner city, detached home.
And while buying their ideal home, urban Indians claimed to look for these key attributes while zeroing on their dream home. Good location (48%) was the biggest hook for consideration, followed by affordability of value for money (30%), low crime rate (30%), a good view (26%), close to good quality schools (25%), access to public transport (22%), good local infrastructure (19%), outdoor space, including a garden, balcony (14%), privacy (11%), near your office or place of work (11%) and the area has a good sense of community (10%).
The survey identified several challenges in housing and for Indians the top 3 challenges were of high taxes (39%), high interest rates (38%) and high property prices (35%).
“Owning one’s own home provides security and equilibrium, at the same time it takes citizens their lifetime to own one and for some this dream of home ownership is not even realized. A slew of tax breaks and incentives in the Union Budget of 2025 announced by the finance minister on Feb 1st will bring some reprieve to home owners and aspirants, and will encourage more citizens to invest in home ownership, brick by brick and earlier in life and should not be a gargantuan and onerous task. Assets are built through easy monthly instalments and home is an appreciating asset, unlike other big ticket durables that depreciate. And with easy financing available. It is also important for realtors to meet consumer expecations in housing. Especially, on the location, infrastructure, security attributes, et al,” added Adarkar.
Technical note: Ipsos interviewed 22,279 people online between November 22 and December 6, 2024 in 29 countries and between Friday December 20 and Friday January 3, 2025 in New Zealand. Quotas were set to ensure representativeness and data have been weighted to the known population profile of each country. The sample consists of approximately 1,000 individuals each in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.S., and 500 individuals each in Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, and Türkiye. The sample in India consists of approximately 2,200 individuals, of whom approximately 1,800 were interviewed face-to-face and 400 were interviewed online.