Home Buying Advice For Young Couples

Given that home prices across India have gone through a massive correction and home loan finance companies are offering the best deals, this is the right time to buy, suggests Anuj Puri, Chairman, ANAROCK Group

- Anuj Puri

While the cosmetics market and its customers wrestle with new age-defying and age-reversing concepts and products, there is one market segment that has actually discovered the fountain of youth. Over the past three decades, the grey has been gradually leaching out of the Indian home buyer's profile, leaving full heads of natural black hair and unwrinkled faces in its wake. Gone are the days when only the elderly could or would buy homes on the back of their life savings. Thirty years ago, the typical Indian home buyer was invariably aged above 50 and cashed in his or her provident fund to finally make the dream of homeownership come true. Today, home buyers in India are younger than ever, with the age group of 34-38 populating a majority of sales deeds.

Furthermore, these young buyers are maximizing the advantages of youth with the power of team leverage. With dual-income nuclear families having become the new norm, young married couples are the preferred customer 'configuration' for banks and home loan companies. Their combined creditworthiness is boosted by the very healthy risk profile which banks see in people who have two decades or more of active professional life ahead of them. So what is the result? The ability to buy a sizeable home in a good location today, locking in its value and capital appreciation potential. The Great Indian Dream is alive and kicking in its vibrant and highly aspirational youth.

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