'A Property Price Discount': Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath Shares Idea To Combat Air Pollution

At a time when most metro cities are choked with air pollution woes, especially national capital Delhi, Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath has suggested an innovative idea to improve air and water qualities. His idea to link property prices to air and water quality in the respective localities has sparked a debate on social media.

Kamath on Sunday shared an alarming data on how air pollution has killed millions across India over the past few years. 

“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 wrote in a post on X.

Kamath suggested a “property price discount for the quality of air and water” as the solution. According to Kamath, economic incentives like property price discounts could prompt collective action to promote a cleaner environment in the localities.

“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 wrote.

Kamath also said that a property owner will likely turn “into the owner of the place, and better odds of fixing it if working as a group”, if such a thing happens.

“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 said.

Kamath also noted how the air quality index (AQI) in cities other than Delhi was also not any good. According to the data he shared, air pollution has annually killed 11,964 people in Delhi, 5,091 in Mumbai, 4,678 in Kolkata and 2,870 in Chennai.

Kamath’s out-of-the-box idea got the internet talking, with users coming up with their own suggestions.

“40 percent of this is due to vehicles. Immediate introduction of 100,000 ac electric buses in India (China deployed 1,33,000 last year) can have a significant impact to reduce congestion and pollution. We have the intent, now need execution at supersonic speed,” a user commented.

“True, 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,” another user said.

“The dust from construction projects, the dust from incomplete roads and continuous vehicle traffic makes it worse. Making Indian cities dust free should be our first motto,” read another comment.

Kamath’s comments come at a time when Delhi and its neighbouring cities are grappling with the Air Quality Index (AQI) remaining in the 'severe' category over the past few weeks. The national capital remained blanketed under a thick layer of smog for many days so far in November, with AQI breaching the 500 mark on several occasions.

Delhi’s average AQI stood at 285 at 9 am on Monday with the air quality remaining in the ‘poor’ category.