Billionaire Nikhil Kamath buys his first house, putting an end to renting vs buying debate | Trending

After denouncing the idea of buying a house and instead favouring to rent a place, Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath has revealed that he has finally given in to the idea and bought a house.

In the latest episode of his podcast “WTF is with Nikhil Kamath”, Kamath reignited the buying vs renting debate with Irfan Razack, Chairman & MD of Prestige Group, Nirupa Shankar, Executive Director at Brigade Group, and Karan Virwani, CEO of WeWork India.

Known for favouring renting, Kamath shared the one disadvantage of renting a house. “The thing with renting, of all the advantages of renting, there is one disadvantage: you don’t have foresight as to when you can move out of the house. I had to move out of this house, whereas I might have liked to stay longer in this house,” he said. (Also read: Most Indians are ‘one hospitalization away from bankruptcy,’ Nithin Kamath warns)

Take a look at the video here:

When asked if he thinks buying a house can add to his financial strength, Kamath said he hated the illiquid nature of real estate.

‘Real estate is illiquid’

“I feel something like gold can give that to me. I hate the illiquid nature of real estate. Places like this have fewer buyers and if 10 people decide to sell then price goes haywire and pricing is very arbitrary in nature. Stock market in comparison has to have more people. If in a certain company, one million people decide to sell, then it will make significant difference,” he said. (Also read: Nikhil Kamath on running Zerodha with brother Nithin: ‘Egos come into play…’)

The Zerodha co-founder also shared his displeasure over paying stamp duty that the government levies on the price of the property. “In stock market, I can buy and sell without paying 5% to 6% stamp duty,” he said.

The real estate tycoons discuss whether buying a house and renting it is actually a profitable venture. “I think nobody makes money from buying and renting a place. You do not have occupancy throughout the year for something like AirBnB. Accounting for inflation and interest rates, the return on this investment is negligible,” he said.