I came across this article where a brokerage firm does a “Realty Stock Check”-which realty stocks to buy/hold.Found it fairly amusing that there was no “sell” in the title.

Brokerages tend to treat the realty business like any other business.But do they seriously believe that the balance sheet/p&l statements of a realtor reflect the true state of affairs?

Cold hard cash is the mother’s milk which runs the realty business in India.You need cash to buy the land (no land owner will settle for 100% white), you need cash to pay off the contractors,you need cash to manage the politicians, you need cash to manage the officials etc

In Mumbai, builders routinely pay a couple of crores even before construction starts.

When such a large part of the realty business is done off the books,then does looking at the balance sheet etc make any sense?

Realty stocks can be a good medium for speculation/punting.But if you want to make real money from realty, forget the stock and research the hard asset.