Why Working Class Indians Still Struggle to Buy a Home & What Can One Do?

Prasad Ajinkya1 Comment
Working class

There’s room at the top they’re telling you still

But first, you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working-class hero is something to be

John Lennon

When you think about it, a working-class hero with a dream to build a home is something to be, especially in the dubious world of rising property rates. You are either of the two – the one who had booked a flat years ago and have lost the hope of waiting for the builder to deliver, and have decided to say goodbye to the dream home that never came to be. Or the one struggling with finances to actually buy a home.

Imagine if you may, a middle-class worker plagued with the thoughts of home loan EMI, house rent till he gets the possession, kids’ school fees, and household expenses – all to be managed in his meagre salary; a seemingly endless loop of payables even before the salary gets credited. Not to mention the big question – how to secure finance to pay off the chunk of the home down payment. Sounds familiar? Perhaps a struggle you yourself might be facing!

With RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) in place, there is some relief to the home buyers when it comes to putting their trust in developers. That resolves the first issue of untrustworthy developers. However, the problem of securing finance still remains the biggest concern.

Today, with subvention plans or no-EMI-till-possession plans buyers are more hopeful. Under such schemes, home buyers are asked to pay some percent (in between 10 to 30 percent) of the amount as the down payment. The rest is paid by a bank to the developer as a loan. While the project is under development, the developer pays the interest on the loan to the bank. The buyer’s EMIs begin only after he gets possession. A great deal, isn’t it? But like all good things, this too comes with a catch. Home buyers need to understand the nitty-gritty of the schemes before venturing into a deal. After all, knowledge is power!

Coming back to the current situation, while no-EMI-till-possession plans resolve 70 to 80% of the problem, the massive 20-30% upfront down payment remains a hurdle equivalent to a massive chunk of an iceberg submerged underwater. Here is where HomeCapital comes to the rescue with it’s Home Down Payment Assistance Program. What this program does is it facilitates interest-free loan equal to the contribution towards down payment which will be provided by the partner-lending institutions in participating projects. The interest is borne by HomeCapital and the principal amount is divided by the number of months to arrive at monthly payments. The program increases your home loan eligibility and makes your home buying faster and simpler. Sounds too good to be true? But it is true. Tried and tested, the program addresses the challenge of the down payment for home buyers, particularly first time buyers from working-class with dreams to have a home sweet home.

To sum up, in the ever-changing real estate market, one thing that never changes is the challenges faced by the home buyers. However, with more strict regulations in place and evolving home finance sector addressing a few of the big problems, owning your dream home doesn’t seem like a far fetched idea anymore. All you need to do is make a smart move to move into your dream home today, rather than five to ten years down the line.

Helping GenZ find their place

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When do backpackers settle?

A few decades back, the only time a fresh out of college fledgling would consider buying their own house was when they contemplated marrying and even then within a joint family system they saw buying property as investment.

Over time, with escalating rents and increased self independence, the robust Gen Z is showing an inclination to own homes by the time they turn 27. The Homebuyer Insight Report shows a majority of prospective home buyers between 18 and 23 who want to buy a house in the next 5 years (this is in the developed countries). About 52% of the above numbers have already started saving for their own property.

But what about the developing nations?

The story in developing nations is completely different. With a majority of individuals going through lengthier schooling periods, and taking more time to find their way through their careers and eventual independence, the average Indian Gen Z has all the aspirations of the Gen Z, but also has all the legacies to manage.

I say aspiration because the typical Gen Z in India first rushes headlong into a job to ensure financial independence. Over time as the bare necessities are funded, then the Gen Z aspires to travel … the generation is also called as backpackers because of the affinity of unstructured experiences which are valued by this generation. For example instead of a Kesari tour (meh!), this person would want to backpack their way on a beaten down path.

So when do Gen Z finally settle?

The research done points to a couple of reasons.

When starting a Family

Starting a family is the largest motivator for settling down and buying a home. Even if that means taking a loan or financial aid for buying the home.

One of the major challenges that Indian Gen Zs face is that the down payment required for real estate is so high that it’s difficult to buy this house early. What that means, that an entire generation starts becoming more career focused so that they can finally afford their homes.

To solve this problem, HomeCapital has launched India’s First Home Down Payment Assistance Program. Wait … what?

Yes, it is a mouthful, but it’s worth it. What this program addresses, is the challenge that most first time home buyers in India face. The down payment.

Started by a team of professionals from varied fields, the program will provide up to half of your down payment requirements. The program lets you to double your down payment capability and widens your reach in terms of home affordability. It increases your home loan eligibility and makes your home buying faster and simpler.

The cool part

The best part is that this program is engineered in such a manner that the user is not charged interest for the unsecured personal loan that the user gets on this form of assistance. That’s as good as a 0% interest for the user!

Yes, you got that right. If you want a home and you are buying a home on any of HomeCapital’s listed properties, then the HomeCapital team will help you with an unsecured personal loan to pay the down payment, the stamp duty and the registration fees. At zero interest.

So, if you haven’t been thinking of buying a home because of the insanely high prices, now think again.

Solving the problem of Discovery

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The real problem that Google solves, is the problem of availability. When you have a problem and are searching for the solution, Google provides you with a list of most likely content that can address the problem. The problem is created by information asymmetry. You just don’t know and are willing to try out or read about the different solutions.

However, over a period of time this has turned into a problem of plenty. So many content providers are creating content for the average internet user, that the options tend to give all the creators a sliver of traffic. This has led to a bulk of copy-cats and me-too content providers eyeing for their search visibility. So much so that one of the default rules of inbound marketing is to start a content creation cycle and hope that you keep attracting traffic via Search.

What can new brands do?

Stay away from the whole attack of the clones! All marketers would swear on grabbing the attention of the customer as many times as possible in order to drive a higher brand share. However, at the cost of what?

Instead of creating very similar content? How about solving things that matter instead?

How about identifying a niche area where there is a genuine need and people are struggling to find answers?

This might seem contradictory to what I was saying, but once a brand (or a team) starts engaging with the customers, then you start seeing a slew of issues that no content provider is addressing. Talking about these issues and solving them via your product or service is a far better way to get discovered, rather than to keep talking about how your me-too offering is different from the competitor’s me-too offering!

tl-dr;

Engage with customers to discover what message and positioning you need to take when it comes to working in a crowded market.

🎯 Why You Need to Stop Tracking These 5 Metrics

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This article was written as part of the SEMrush Big Blogging Contest.

One of the things that going digital does to any brand, is that it suddenly gives access to a lot of data. Data, that opens up a world of possibilities.

Possibilities which had not earlier been anticipated or even thought of. Somehow, it propels teams to start thinking in terms of achieving certain data metrics … and that seems to justify the sheer obsession with data.

Continue reading “🎯 Why You Need to Stop Tracking These 5 Metrics” →

Gold

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Gold

I am in the middle of reading Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. If you have been living under a rock like I was, then you may not have heard about his Oxford debate where he smashed his contemporaries on why Britain should do reparations to India.

At this time, I chanced on the movie Gold in Amazon Prime. What perfect timing! A movie about India’s first Olympic gold medal – as a free country. The movie stars Akshay Kumar as a sports manager of the British India National Hockey team, and their ability to keep winning the Olympic gold for British India. History buffs and hockey buffs (preferably both) would be quick to point out that during that time the team was led by the Wizard of Hockey, Dhyan Chand.

For the sake of preserving identities of the negative roles, the names have been changed, and Dhyan Chand is portrayed by Kunal Kapoor as the legendary captain Pritam. If you do not know who is Dhyan Chand, please stop reading and head on to the wiki link. India was well known in the history of hockey largely due to this chap. We owned the international circuit from 1928 (pre-independence) up till as late as 1980. Pretty much the time cricket took over as the national craze and the national sport lost its crowds. Ironically, in 2014 when Dhyan Chand’s name was being considered for Bharat Ratna (the highest civilian award in India), it was never nominated and the award winner was none other than apna Sachin!

But I digress, this is about the movie and not a diatribe about hockey losing out to cricket!

The movie is about getting India’s first Olympic gold, and how the main character in the story (a Bengali team manager played by Akshay Kumar) helps the team get its gold. This under the backdrop of the partition and post-independence struggles that the new country faces make for a riveting story.

Bollywood has oft taken an anti-Pakistan stance in the past, and it’s very easy to take this stance. However, you should see how this movie has spun the entire India-Pakistan tale. It’s heart-rending and one might wonder … a magnificent what-if … our national leaders back then were brave and foolhardy to take such a decision then. What stops from doing something equally foolish now?

History tells us the outcome of this story … India dominated the hockey scene for a long time. However, the story also talks about the role of administration in ensuring that the sport has enough backing. In the chaos of IPL and slogans like fan banna padega … I ask you this … what about our national sport? I wish this movie had done much better on the box office, it deserves to be seen, not only for the acting – but also for the narrative.

AMP and Advertising

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Mobile Content

This blog is a modest small-tier blog. It does not get too much traffic (much to my chagrin) and therefore expecting the blog to monetize is too much. However, I have steadily written my thoughts and opinions on this … for the past 7-8 years now.

Looking at such a long time range allows me to study how blogging and blog monhersetization has changed over the years. Especially now with mobile form factors being the main devices that users tend to consume content with.

Continue reading “AMP and Advertising” →

Comfort Zones

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In case, if you haven’t really been following my blog, I generally tend to write about tech, games, some personal thoughts, some thoughts about my work at 13 Llama and some analytics.

What I do not write about is Design … be it any design. Systems design, Visual Design, Brand Design … even solutions design. I know for certain that I have a certain unhealthy fear of engaging with the design. So much so that it has now become a mental barrier in my head. Staying away from creativity isn’t necessarily bad since we do a lot of analytical and logical work. Having said that, breaking down problems into smaller bite-sized tasks is now a child’s play and there has become a comfort zone. So much so, that over the past few months I had started to think that we should focus on driving more business in these areas.

What does one do when one doesn’t have an option?

Of late though, some of the mandates we have been getting involved us having to work with and also having to define the design specifications. Some of our new team members were pretty gung-ho about working on design specifications instead of a pure play numbers game.

To add to that, at pretty much the same time, we had a couple of our main clients request that we get involved at a higher level and help guide the marketing briefs.

We could have chosen to keep focused on the analytics niche and not step up to the mantle. However, we decided to step out of our comfort zone and things have been taking an interesting turn.

Stepping out of comfort zones

This often involves stepping into a chaotic situation, spending some time taking stock and then working on multiple fronts and more often than not in an iterative manner. From an engagement point of view, it takes a special sort of client to work with. An organization which understands that is an organization that is also in a sense working out of its comfort zone.

This also means that the team which is actively engaged in stepping out of its comfort zone is very very focused on the purpose at hand.

Instead of worrying about things such as appraisals, office times, leaves and petty office politics, the team is then focused on doing what it takes to get the job done. The line of comfort just disappears and shit gets done.

Organizations and comfort zones

For a lot of organizations, functional teams end up becoming comfort zones. An example of this is when there are functional silos in a firm and cross-functional exchanges do not happen as smoothly as expected. This is when both the functions engaging are not stepping out of their zone of comfort. Unfortunately, we have all experienced the adverse effects when customer-facing teams do not step out of their comfort zone.

This severely impacts their ability and sometimes even the intent to engage. Symptoms of this condition are cases where the customer-facing teams cite company policies, or often play the victim, or end up misinforming or lying to the customer. This builds a trust deficit within and without the system.

What can organizations do?

Foster a culture of experimentation and over-delivering value. Sometimes force teams to work outside the zone of comfort. Align teams to the grandiose scheme of things and how their mundane job is, in fact, a purpose-centric activity and not a functional silo.

As a concluding note, assuming people are willing to often step out of their comfort zones is such a positive mindset that the rewards of the mindset alone are worth the efforts of stretching one’s boundaries. Over the past few months, I have seen my fledgling teamwork outside their comfort zones, get over their initial mental barriers and come out for the better. The decision to step out of my own comfort zones has been definitely worth it!