We examine whether internet search intensity, as captured by Google’s Search Volume Index (SVI), predicts house price changes in an emerging market like India. Emerging markets have low internet penetration and high information asymmetry with a dominant unorganized real estate market. Like in...

Ideally land and buildings ought to be preferred collateral for lenders in India, as in many other countries, due to the ease of valuation and disposal of land in the event of default. Data shows that land is a collateral in a large proportion of loans in India, yet the several structural,...

Real estate markets in emerging economies are beset with price opacity, low transaction volumes and perverse incentives on tax evasion, leading to acute shortage of reliable price information. In this paper, we overcome the paucity of reliable price information in emerging markets through a...

Affordable housing is a problem that many countries are taking stock of, world over. In India, the problem is much more stark with an estimated shortage of around 18 million houses, with 99% of this in the economically weaker sections of society. This paper sets out the definitions of affordable...

Housing satisfies investment and consumption needs for households - about 11% of Indian households purchase homes through home mortgages loan from Banks and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs). Lending norms by banks and HFCs for housing mortgage loans are largely determined by two factors:...