India, Aug. 1 -- For nearly two decades, China's property boom looked like a machine that could not stop. Developers borrowed to buy land, sold apartments before completing them and used fresh customer money to keep older projects moving.

Rising prices encouraged buyers to treat homes as investments, while local governments benefited from land sales. The model appeared powerful because every new launch created more cash, more construction and more confidence.

India's housing market is now enjoying a strong cycle of its own. Large developers are reporting record pre-sales, premium homes are gaining share and project pipelines are expanding.

But the real lesson from China is not that every housing boom ends in a crash. It is that trou...