The Journal

Notes onliving well.

Buying

What a good plot actually looks like

Frontage, drainage, orientation and the neighbour's parapet. The four things that decide whether a house will be pleasant to live in — none of which appear in a listing.

Anaya Mehra · 7 min

Investment

The yield question nobody asks

Gross rental yield is the most quoted and least useful number in Indian real estate. Here is what to model instead.

Ira Nathan · 9 min

Architecture

Why laterite is back

A material that Goa quarried, forgot, and is now rediscovering — with thermal performance no concrete wall can match.

Vikram Rao · 6 min

Lifestyle

The weekend home arithmetic

Four hours each way, eighteen weekends a year. The honest maths of owning a second home in the hills.

Anaya Mehra · 5 min