‘Earn like an Indian, buy like an American’: CA calls middle class housing daylight theft

India’s real estate market is no longer about affordability—it’s about survival, says CA Nitin Kaushik, who argues that middle-class Indians are being priced out of basic housing in what he describes as an economy propped up by hype, hoarding, and black money.

In a hard-hitting LinkedIn post, Kaushik compares a ₹2.5 crore 3BHK in Mumbai’s suburbs to a ₹3 crore 3BHK in Dallas, Texas, noting the absurdity of such price parity in two vastly different economies. The real gap, he writes, isn’t the sticker price—it’s the income. India’s average per capita income stands at ₹1.96 lakh a year. In the U.S., it’s ₹55 lakh.

“The Indian real estate market isn’t driven by affordability,” Kaushik says. “It’s driven by hype, hoarding, and black money.”

The result is a distorted housing market where buying a home has become a financial trap for young Indians. “A middle-class couple in India has to save for 25–30 years to afford a decent house in any metro city,” he notes. In the U.S., with proper planning, that timeline is closer to five to seven years.

Kaushik argues that India’s so-called “housing boom” is not progress, but “economic slavery in disguise.” Millennials are left with two bleak options: live with parents indefinitely or take out a 25-year home loan that swallows half their monthly income.

Despite 1.1 crore unsold housing units in India, property prices continue to rise. Kaushik attributes this to deliberate market distortion: “Builders, banks, brokers — everyone’s eating. Except the common man.”

The rigged system, he writes, is upheld by institutional players who benefit from inflated valuations and avoid triggering a market correction. Meanwhile, young Indians earning ₹40,000 a month are expected to buy ₹2 crore homes—often with little help and even less financial security.

Calling it “daylight robbery with a RERA stamp,” Kaushik urges a rethink of what we celebrate as aspirational living. “Affordability died a decade ago,” he writes. “Let’s stop pretending otherwise.”