In 1930, anyone with a steady job in Srinagar could dream of owning land. A kanal on what are now the city’s prime roads cost barely INR 20. A government officer could buy several kanals with just one month’s salary.
Back then, land was something to build on, farm, and hand down through generations. It gave people a sense of stability, pride, and belonging.
Ninety-five years later, the same kanal of land is worth around 4 crore rupees. That rise, from a few notes to a fortune, represents an annual growth rate of 16.5 percent over nearly a century.
Few assets anywhere in the world have multiplied in value this dramatically for so long.
The story of Kashmir’s real estate is a story of a people’s attachment to the soil and their pursuit of security through ownership, shaped by history, geography, and emotion.
Land in Kashmir has always been identity. Families introduce themselves by where they live. Ancestral homes are memories that stretch across generations.
Even now, many Kashmiris choose to buy land before investing in business, stock markets, or new technology. For them, wealth must be something you can touch, and something that cannot vanish overnight.
This instinct was strengthened by the upheavals that marked the last century. Land reforms in the 1950s gave ownership to those who tilled the soil, breaking old hierarchies and creating new aspirations. Urban expansion in the following decades pushed up property values, as new roads and schools made previously remote areas desirable.
Then came the years of uncertainty when politics froze much of the economy. Banks, industries, and tourism suffered, but land held its value. Families who could not trust the markets trusted their land.
By the 1990s, buying property had become an act of protection. People built houses as a form of insurance against uncertainty. Even those who left Kashmir dreamed of returning to a piece of earth they could call their own. The emotional bond grew stronger with every decade.
Today, the same bond faces an economic wall.
The arithmetic of ownership tells a hard truth. A professional earning around INR 2.5 lakh a month would need to save for more than thirteen years to afford one kanal of land in Srinagar.
This gap between earnings and property prices has widened so sharply that it now defines the new inequality. Those who inherited land have seen their fortunes multiply. Those without ancestral property find it slipping further out of reach.
In a valley with limited industry and few large employers, real estate has outpaced everything else. Unlike Delhi, Mumbai, or Bangalore, where property growth aligns with expanding businesses and rising incomes, Kashmir’s real estate boom stands largely on emotional and speculative ground. Land has become a symbol of security rather than a reflection of productivity.
