India, July 9 -- Anecdotally, India's housing market has always been believed to have a shadow component. To be sure, there are very few large economies in the world, which do not have a tax-evasion problem especially one that involves investing undeclared incomes in household assets. The opportunity cost of stopping such activities through drastic methods can often be prohibitively high for an economy. But at a certain level, shadow economy in sectors such as housing can become a strain on household viability. Recent data from China and India should provoke us into asking some questions about the housing market in the latter.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....