New Delhi, April 30 -- In the Indian middle-class psyche, few things offer the security of an investment into a second home, one that you don't live in but which will offer you a steady source of income (rent) when you retire, or an upside when the real estate market booms. For decades, the narrative has been passed down through generations: rent out an apartment and let the property pay for itself. It is a dream built on the comfort of physical possession, where you put into something that allows you to touch the walls and walk through the rooms of your investment.

However, this deep-seated emotional bias toward physical residential property is increasingly clashing with hard math for the modern investor. While being a landlord is commo...