First, it is important to know what you do. Which class do you belong to? Do you keep transferring or not? Are you choosy about your house or not? What is your social standing? Do you know people in society and have you met them? What are your future plans? etc.
Suppose you are from the middle class and have a job and are not ambitious or a risk taker, then obviously the money you invest in buying a house will not be invested anywhere else. Because if you keep it in the bank on interest, you will not get much. In such a situation, if you invest that money in some other place, only then will you get profit like business or mutual fund or giving it to someone you know on high interest (usury), all these options are full of risk.
So if you do not want to take risks, then you will not be able to invest in them. Then if you do not have your own house, then invest in the house only, at least there will be some meaningful investment.
If you invest in a shop or in land, then you will get more profit:
If the shop is on land, then its rent will keep coming and if you are taking it on loan, then a part of the EMI will be paid from the rent. But keep in mind that you should buy it in such an area where the prices will increase and not decrease in the future. Appreciation has become very difficult for any place these days.
Today if you are buying a flat or a shop and in the next ten years its price is decreasing instead of increasing or no buyer is found or it has increased but the amount received is less than the bank interest in ten years, then this will be a loss-making deal.
But there will be many advantages to buying your own house, like, it will be of your choice, the area will be of your choice, you will get to know people and form a community, it will be easy to make changes in the house as per your wish, there will be no stress in case of fights or disagreements with the house owner, you will not have to make an agreement every eleven months or think of finding a house somewhere else, a permanent home gives a different kind of comfort, especially to that generation who have lived in their own house under the protection of family members in big families.
Then buying a house is better.
But if you are a businessman and money means business. If you ask a businessman, he wants to invest every rupee in business so that his returns are better, today if someone is investing money in a business and there is income, then the return can be up to 200%.
A shopkeeper near me, instead of buying a house with the money received as dowry many years ago, invested it in firecrackers, now everyone knows that the MRP of firecrackers is four times its actual price.
In such a case, if someone invests ten thousand and if he sells goods worth ten thousand in three days, then he will earn 30 thousand in 3 days.
Which investment will give so much interest?
I have only given you an example that to what extent money can be increased by investing it in the right place and by the right person.
So if you do business, then invest it in a better place like buying land in an undisputed area (where permanent people do not usurp your land by making fake papers). Invest in shops in an area where the price of land is going to increase.
Always invest in a shop on land and not in a mall or a building, there is no benefit here because the building cannot remain new for a long time and buildings in India are not maintained properly, except in metros. In such a case, the dilapidated condition of old buildings makes the flats and shops in them worthless.
You can also invest in a flat if it is being built in a developing area but sell it within five years in any case, otherwise, the price will keep decreasing when the building gets old, especially in today’s time where so many changes are being made in every new building that even a building built two years ago looks historical in front of the new one.
Only in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, etc., your flat will increase more than its price in the coming time, in other cities only in special areas there will be an increase, and that too according to the age of the building, which will not give a good return on your investment.
So, if you don’t have a problem in living on rent and you can get better returns by investing that money somewhere, then it is better to live in a rented house. Because including property tax, and maintenance, even if you own your house, there is a lot of expenditure on it every year. Which is not to be paid in many rented houses. Also, transfers keep happening, so there is no point in buying your own.