Nithin Kamath says air quality should decide property prices in Delhi, Bengaluru

Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath has shared a radical idea of linking property prices with air and water quality to help keep the pollution levels down.
“You have to wonder what it will take for us to take air pollution more seriously. By the way, this data only covers until 2019, and things have only gotten worse in the last five years,” he said in a lengthy post on X, sharing a newspaper clipping on air pollution-related deaths in India.
Kamath said that “a property price discount” for the quality of air and water maybe a solution to the rising pollution levels across cities in the country.
“If economics accounted for this, maybe we would all figure this out. Essentially the air and water quality determines the rate for the property,” he suggested, adding that linking property to air quality will turn a property owner into the owner of the place.
“For example, if I went from owning a property in JP Nagar and caring for it to caring for my layout in JP Nagar and then the whole of JP Nagar, it could have a better outcome,” he explained.
He also argued that while Delhi’s hazardous air gets most of the attention, the air quality is not good in most cities in India including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
The suggestion was met with positive comments from users on social media who said that economic incentives tied to environmental factors could push communities to take responsibility.
“The actual worth of real estate reduces when one realises that they are actually breathing polluted air and reducing life span, and that even spending crores of rupees on buying a luxury home can’t buy you real luxury,” said one user.
“The next startup that solves pollution problems will be the one to bet on,” wrote another user.
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