Why I Would Tell You Not to Buy a Holiday Home in Wayanad

 Let me start with something that may sound strange coming from me.

I live in Wayanad.

I am building businesses here.

I am involved in hospitality.

I am working on holiday homes and nature based living.

And still, if someone calls me and says,

"Anup, I am thinking of buying a piece of land in Wayanad and building a homestay. What do you think?"

 

My first answer today is not,

"Yes, go ahead."

My first answer is,

"Wait."

Spend some time here.

Understand Wayanad.

Then decide.

Because I have slowly realised that many people are not really investing in Wayanad.

They are investing in a picture they have created in their minds about Wayanad.

They see a beautiful piece of land.

A mountain view.

A stream running beside it.

A lake somewhere nearby.

Trees everywhere.

Maybe the forest is just a few hundred metres away.

The broker says,

"Sir, this area is going to develop."

The price still looks reasonable.

And suddenly, the dream begins.

"I will build a few cottages."

"I will put them on Airbnb."

"It will give me passive income."

"One day I will retire here."

"The land value will go up."

"I can always sell it."

I understand the attraction.

I have felt it myself.

But after spending time here, I have started asking myself a different question.

 

Are we buying Wayanad because we understand Wayanad, or because we have fallen in love with a beautiful piece of land?

There is a big difference.

 

A beautiful view is not the same as a good investment

A property can look magical when you visit for two hours.

 

But you are not buying two hours.

You are buying the next 10, 20 or 30 years.

What happens when the monsoon comes?

How does the road behave?

Where does the rainwater go?

What happens to the stream when there is heavy rain?

Is the land on a slope?

What is the soil like?

How close are you to the forest?

What kind of wildlife moves through the area?

How far is the nearest hospital?

How easy is it to reach your property at night?

These are not questions that come to your mind when you are standing on a hill looking at the sunset.

But these are the questions you should ask before signing the sale agreement.

 

Wayanad is beautiful because of its forests, hills, agriculture, water and wildlife. That beauty is not a free decoration that comes with your land. It comes with responsibility. The forest is beautiful. But do you really want to live next to it?

I have heard many people say,

 "I want a property right next to the forest."

 I understand why.

 Who wouldn't want to wake up every morning looking at trees?

 But I always ask them,

 "Have you thought about what living next to a forest actually means?"

 Wildlife does not know where your property boundary ends.

 An elephant does not understand your compound wall.

 A wild boar does not care that you have invested ₹50 lakh in landscaping.

 Nature is beautiful.

 But nature is not a theme park.

 If you are buying a holiday home, perhaps you can enjoy being deep inside nature for a few days.

 But if you are planning to live there permanently, you need to understand the reality of the location.

 Before you buy, ask the people who have lived there for years.

 Ask about elephants.

Ask about wild boars.

Ask about leopards.

Ask about the roads.

Ask what happens during the monsoon.

Don't just ask the person who is selling you the land.

The stream beside your property may be beautiful. But study it first.

I have seen people get excited about a stream running through or beside a property.

"Sir, water is there."

"Sir, what a view."

"Sir, imagine building cottages here."

Yes.

Imagine it.

But also imagine the same place during a very heavy monsoon.

Understand where the water comes from.

Where does it go?

Has the land ever flooded?

What happens upstream?

What happens downstream?

Can you legally build where you want to build?

What are the rules around the water body?

These are boring questions when you are buying land.

 

They become very important questions after you buy it.

The most beautiful piece of land is not always the safest piece of land.

Sometimes the very thing that makes a property beautiful is also the thing you need to understand most carefully.

 

Then there is agriculture

This is something I have started thinking about much more after coming to Wayanad.

I hear people say,

"I will buy land and do farming."

It sounds wonderful.

A few acres of land.

Pepper.

Coffee.

Arecanut.

Avocado.

Maybe some vegetables.

 

You imagine yourself walking through your plantation in the morning with a cup of coffee. The picture is beautiful.

The accounts may not be.

You are investing lakhs, sometimes crores, to buy the land.

Then you have to maintain it.

You have to find workers.

You have to pay daily labour.

You have to deal with fertilisers, maintenance, disease, weather and crop damage.

Then comes the harvest.

And the price of your produce is not always in your hands.

 

When you finally calculate the money you have invested in the land, the maintenance cost, labour and other expenses, the yield from the farm may not give you the kind of return you imagined.

 

There are certainly successful farmers.

There are certainly crops and farming models that can make good money.

But farming is not automatically profitable just because the land is fertile.

 

Before you buy agricultural land, I would suggest doing one simple calculation.

Don't calculate only the income from the crop. Calculate the entire cost of owning and maintaining the land.

 

Then ask yourself,

 "Would I still buy this land if the land price never increased?"

 

That is an important question.

Because if your answer is no, then perhaps you are not buying farmland. You are buying land and hoping that someone else will pay more for it later.

 And this is where I worry about Wayanad.

 

Are we slowly turning farmland into a waiting room?

As land prices rise, some agricultural land is no longer being treated as agricultural land. Trees are cut.

 The land is left unused.

 Agriculture is stopped.

 The owner waits.

 "Let the price increase."

 "Someone will come and buy it."

 I have seen situations where trees are cut before the land is sold because the owner feels that the trees are worth money today. But what happens to the land tomorrow? Slowly, land becomes a financial asset rather than a living ecosystem.

And if all of us do this, what happens to Wayanad?

 

Wayanad cannot survive only on land transactions.

 It needs agriculture.

 It needs forests.

 It needs water.

 It needs wildlife.

 It needs people who care for the land.

 If we buy agricultural land only to wait for the next buyer, we are not really investing in Wayanad.

 We are speculating on Wayanad.

 

Buying land is easy.

Selling it is a completely different story.

 This is something I tell people who come from outside Wayanad.

 

You may find a beautiful property today.

 You may negotiate a good price.

 You may feel that you have made a brilliant investment.

 But five years later, if you want to sell it, who is your buyer?

 This is the question very few people ask.

 There is another reality that many outside buyers may not think about.

 A local landowner may decide to sell his land tomorrow at a slightly lower price because he inherited it or has owned it for years.

 He may not have paid interest on a large loan.

 He may not have spent money developing the property.

 He may not have paid for five years of maintenance.

 But you may have.

 You may have invested your savings.

 You may have taken a bank loan.

 You may have paid interest for five years.

 You may have spent money maintaining the land.

 You may have built a road, a boundary wall, landscaping or a house.

 So when you decide to sell, your actual cost is not just the price you paid for the land.

 Your cost is:

 The land price.

 Your investment.

 Your loan interest.

 Your maintenance.

 Your development cost.

 And the opportunity cost of the money you put into it.

 But the person selling a similar property next door may not have all those costs.

 So your land may be worth ₹X to you. But the market may not care how much you spent.

 

The buyer will simply compare your property with the next available property.

 

This is why I always say:

 Don't just ask,

 "Is this a good price?"

 Ask,

 "If I need to sell this tomorrow, who will buy it from me?"

 

Now let's talk about homestays

This is where I think many people make their biggest mistake.

 They come to Wayanad.

 They see tourists everywhere.

 They see hotels.

 They see homestays.

 They open Airbnb.

 They see beautiful cottages charging ₹5,000, ₹8,000 or ₹15,000 a night.

 And they think,

 "I can also build four cottages."

 But tourism numbers and your property's occupancy are two completely different things.

 Wayanad has a growing tourism market.

 That is good news.

 But it does not mean every new homestay will automatically get bookings.

 The short stay market is already crowded, with thousands of listings across platforms.

 So the question is not simply,

 "Are tourists coming to Wayanad?"

 The real questions are:

 Where are they staying?

 Why are they choosing one property over another?

 How many properties are already available in the area where you want to build?

 And perhaps the most important question:

 How many existing properties are already struggling to get enough business?

 Before buying land and building a homestay, I would spend a week doing something very simple.

 Open Airbnb.

 Open Booking.com.

 Look at your exact location.

 Look at properties similar to what you want to build.

 Check how many reviews they have.

 Look at their pricing.

 Look at their availability.

 Look at their weekday availability.

 Look at how many properties are sitting empty.

 Talk to owners.

 Ask them what their actual occupancy is.

 Not what the broker tells you.

 Not what the architect tells you.

 Not what your friend tells you.

 

Ask the person who is already running the business.

 Because building a beautiful property is one business.

 Getting people to stay there is another.

 And running it profitably is a completely different business.

 You may have a beautiful four cottage property.

 But if you have guests only on weekends and holidays, can your business pay for the land, construction, staff, electricity, maintenance, marketing and your loan?

 That is the calculation you need to do before you build.

 Not after.

 

Then comes retirement

This is perhaps the most emotional reason people give me for buying land in Wayanad.

"I will retire here."

I love that idea.

But I also tell them,

"Please don't buy your retirement home based on the needs of your 45 year old self."

Think about your 60 year old self.

Today, you may happily drive 40 minutes on a winding road to reach your home.

What happens when you are 60?

What happens if you need a doctor at 11 PM?

What happens if you need a hospital urgently?

How far is the nearest good hospital?

How quickly can an ambulance reach you?

What happens during heavy rain?

Who lives around you?

Who will you call if you need help?

Retirement is not just about waking up to a mountain view.

It is also about having people around you.

This is why I personally believe that retirement is often better in a community.

Come with friends.

Buy together.

Build together.

Create a small community.

Or find a professionally managed community where people with similar interests can live around you. Because when we are young, we want privacy.

As we grow older, we often realise that what we really need is company.

Someone to have breakfast with.

Someone to talk to.

Someone to call when something goes wrong.

Someone to celebrate a festival with.

Someone who knows you are there.

 

A beautiful isolated house may be a wonderful holiday. It may not always be a wonderful retirement.

 

So, should you buy land in Wayanad?

My answer is still yes.

But not blindly.

If you really want to buy, spend time here first.

Come during summer.

Come during monsoon.

Come on a weekday.

Come during a holiday season.

Talk to local people.

Talk to farmers.

Talk to existing homestay owners.

Understand wildlife.

Understand the ecology.

Understand the road.

Understand the water.

Understand healthcare.

Understand the legal side.

Understand the tourism demand of that particular location.

And most importantly, ask yourself why you are buying.

 

Are you buying to live?

To farm?

To retire?

To run a business?

Or simply because someone told you the land price will double?

 

The answer changes everything.

 

If you want to build a homestay, first understand the market before you buy the land.

If you want to farm, first understand the economics before you buy the plantation.

If you want to retire, first understand the community and healthcare before you buy the dream home.

If you want an investment, first understand who your future buyer will be.

And if you want to build a life in Wayanad, I would say something else.

Don't try to own Wayanad. Try to become a part of it.

 That is something I have slowly started understanding after coming here.

 

Maybe the future is not in everyone buying a separate piece of land, cutting down the trees, building a house or a few cottages, and then waiting for the land value to go up.

 

Maybe the future is in people coming together.

 A group of friends.

 A community.

 Shared spaces.

 Nature.

 Agriculture.

 Wellness.

 Good healthcare access.

 Managed services.

 A place where you can have your own private space, but still have people around you. Because when we are young, we want privacy. As we grow older, we often realise that what we really need is company.

  

Maybe that is what the next generation of second homes and retirement living should look like. Not isolated houses scattered across the hills. Not more and more concrete replacing agriculture. Not properties built only because someone thinks the land price will double. But communities that respect the land they are built on. 

The idea is not simply to buy or sell a piece of land. It is to ask a much bigger question. What kind of life do you actually want to build in Wayanad? Because after spending time here, I have learnt something. The best investment in Wayanad may not always be the land with the best view. It may not be the land next to a stream. It may not be the land closest to the forest. It may not even be the cheapest land you can find.

 

The best investment may be the place that gives you the best life. And that, I have realised, is a very different thing.