by THO
Zerodha’s co-founder Nithin Kamath has once again sparked a debate on whether property prices should be linked to air quality. ‘The higher the AQI, the lower the real estate prices should be,’ he wrote on X.
“Shouldn’t property prices be linked to AQI? The higher the AQI, the lower the real estate prices should be. That means if an area has poor air quality, property prices and rents should be lower, and vice versa. After all, by living in such areas, you are accepting higher odds of respiratory ailments, cancer,” he wrote on X.
Kamath said that before age-reversal millionaire Bryan Johnson left his brother Nikhil’s WTF podcast, he believed that only Delhi suffers from poor air quality and that too only in winter.
“The biggest takeaway for me after meeting @bryan_johnson was debunking the myth I once believed: that only Delhi in India has an air quality problem and that it occurs only in winter,” he said in a post on X.
Kamath shared that the podcast episode was recorded in a sea-facing apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra, yet the AQI indoors was over 160.
“If the AQI was this high in Bandra, just imagine the levels in the more crowded parts of the town. Later, I got an AQI meter for our office in J.P. Nagar-a quiet corner of Bengaluru-and was shocked to see it reading 120+. Again, imagine how much worse it might be in the busier parts of the city. What makes matters trickier in Bengaluru is the dust from the ongoing construction boom and poor roads,” he added.
Kamath added that the most places in the US and Europe have AQIs below 50 and long-term exposure to poor air quality can affect one’s health.
“This has bothered me ever since. Everyone should have equal access to clean air. With water, you can use a filter to ensure decent quality. But what about air? We seem to have gotten used to the fact that air pollution is just a part of life, and we’re okay with breathing low-quality air even though clean air is a fundamental right granted to citizens by the Constitution,” he added.
Kamath also urged researchers and hospital chains to collaborate with Zerodha’s Rainmatter organisation to study the impact of poor air quality on public health.
In November 2024, Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath proposed linking property prices with air and water quality to help keep pollution levels down and offering a ‘property price discount’ in areas with high levels.
This is what real estate experts have to say about Kamath’s proposal
Real estate experts, however, have said that property prices in an area are guided by factors such as land scarcity, demand and supply, infrastructure, density, and connectivity to places of work, which in turn dictate the guidance or circle rate of a particular area rather than environmental assets.
