Nikhil Kamath, a billionaire entrepreneur and cofounder of Zerodha, had been resisting the idea of buying a home for a long time. He said that it is more beneficial to live on rent instead. However, now it has come to light that Nikhil Kamat himself has bought the house. Recently, he himself revealed this on his “WTF” podcast. In this podcast, he was joined by many well-known personalities from the real estate sector like Irfan Razak (Chairman and MD, Prestige), Nirupa Shankar (Executive Director, Brigade Group), and Karan Virwani (CEO, WeWork India).
Hearing this news, Karan Virwani jokingly said that Kamat should tell this thing publicly so that people’s confidence in the real sector increases. At the same time, Nirupa Shankar said that now Nikhil should become the “poster boy” of real estate.
Amidst this laughter and joking, Nikhil Kamat in his calm nature told that there are advantages of taking a house on rent, but a major disadvantage is that you do not know when you will have to move out of that house. “I may want to stay in that house for a longer period of time. So I thought buying a house to stay in one place for a long time could be the right reason,” he said.
Nirupa Shankar then asked Kamat, “When you analyze the stock market, you look at the financial position of a company and the strength of its balance sheet. Even as individuals, we need a strong balance sheet. What Don’t you think buying a home enhances a person’s financial strength, security and balance sheet?”
Kamat partially disagreed, saying, “I think gold can give me that security. I don’t like the illiquid nature of real estate.”
Agreeing with Kamat, Irfan Razak said, “Real estate is sometimes illiquid, but sometimes it can be sold quickly. But it is an illiquid asset.” Kamat said another challenge is that one has to pay 5-6 per cent stamp duty while buying a property, which is an additional burden.
You can listen to this conversation of Nikhil Kamat below-
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