India, Jan. 31 -- As residential prices continue to rise across Indian cities, a quieter reassessment is underway among property investors. The question is no longer whether real estate belongs in a portfolio, but what role it should play.

For many, the answer is shifting away from ownership as an end goal and toward income performance as the deciding metric. What once functioned as a default wealth-building step is now being examined through the same lens applied to other capital allocations: expected returns, reliability, and risk concentration.

Indian residential property has delivered steady price appreciation over the past decade. According to NHB RESIDEX data, housing prices in India grew from its trough levels of 73 in 2013 to it...