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msiyer

Income tax is ridiculous. Especially in India with the stats I presented.

How exactly are tenants getting the better end of the deal? It is the tenenat who:

- pays the rent which is arbitrarily high and increases every year thereby offsetting the puny salary hikes

- bears the burden of excess tax because the landlord refuses to pay taxes on money earned from rent

- has nothing to show for the money spent in rent

- loses a large part or whole of the "security desposit" when shifting.

Taxes are high because a minister decides to charter a plane and fly thousands of miles to meet another minister for 30 minutes. Taxes are high because when they meet they decide to exchange bouquets that cost tens of thousands of rupees. I can go on and on...

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Almost any economy where buying is expensive, renting works out cheaper.

From the perspective of owning a property. You have far higher costs. That starts with firstly buying land and developing it. Money doesn't grow on trees, so you need take out loan, and pay inflation standard interests to do that. This is while you weather lay off risks, and other deprecation costs. At this point in time, in any major city in India, you need 2+ crores to build a decent rental property.

Then come maintenance costs, long term costs of holding the property(Property taxes), holding the risks of encroachment etc.

Secondly your point on taxes on rent is not entirely right. You will be surprised how easy it is to attract audit and raids. It happens all the time.

Lastly. In case of renting you have no loan risk, you have no encroachment risk, you have mobility advantage, you can look for newly developed properties and stay there. You can shift every time you find amenities of a different property to be better. All of this in a pay-as-you-go model.

> Almost any economy where buying is expensive, renting works out cheaper.

Cheaper than buying. In the short term, maybe.

You make property ownership look like slavery while renters seem to be just enjoying the ride.

If it is so hard and unrewarding to build rental properties it seems landlords are just addicted to losing money.

That's a decision for you to make.

Different people like to look at the situation differently. I gave you a perspective on buying a home.

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