New Year 2026 reality check: Should AQI be the new homebuying filter?

Against this backdrop, a key question looms large: will air quality shape home-buying decisions in 2026? Increasingly, the answer appears to be yes. In a region where pollution levels frequently slip into the ‘poor’ and ‘severe’ categories, clean air is no longer a secondary consideration. Buyers, particularly families with young children, senior citizens, and health-conscious professionals, are expected to prioritise neighbourhoods and housing projects that can demonstrate measurable improvements in air quality, rather than relying solely on luxury developments that promise wellness features.

However, the larger dilemma remains whether buyers truly have that choice, given that most employment opportunities continue to be concentrated in the Delhi-NCR region. Ultimately, the issue extends beyond individual housing decisions and underscores the need for cities themselves to take stronger, sustained steps to curb the pollution they generate in the first place.

Several Reddit users have flagged rising AQI levels and questioned whether buying property in the city makes sense, given unsustainable price growth and worsening air quality. A 30-year-old tech professional recently wrote in a Reddit post that there was ‘no point buying in a city (Gurugram) where, for four months, you choke on the air.’

A recent LinkedIn post highlighted a shift that many homebuyers have quietly begun to accept: clean air is no longer a given; it is a sellable asset.

The post by Vivek Joshi, an author and photographer, traced the evolution of housing marketing over the decades. Homes, once sold simply as places to live, gradually became lifestyle products. First came ‘golf-facing’ apartments, followed by ‘river-facing’, ‘sea-view’, and ‘hill-view’ homes, each promising proximity to nature as a marker of prestige. Today, he notes, a new phrase has entered sales pitches: ‘low AQI locations’.

While homes near parks, lakes or forests often command hefty premiums, the reverse has not held true for polluted areas. Developers readily charge extra for views and aesthetics, but rarely discount prices for smog, contaminated water or degraded living conditions.

Also Read: Delhi-NCR AQI crisis puts spotlight on wellness homes; experts say air quality needs city-level fixes

Last year, Zerodha’s co-founder, Nithin Kamath, had argued for linking property prices to environmental quality, calling for “price discounts” in neighbourhoods with poor air and water conditions. “The higher the AQI, the lower the real estate prices should be,” he wrote, reviving a proposal first floated in 2024 to tie property values to environmental health.

Real estate industry body, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), national president Shekhar G. Patel notes that going forward, district cooling systems and large-scale air purification solutions are likely to become standard features in real estate projects, driven by city-specific demand and environmental requirements, rather than being positioned as luxury add-ons.

Also Read: Low AQI homes are the new real estate buzzword as cities choke on air pollution

Equally important is the project’s location. Buyers should assess historical AQI data for the area, including its proximity to highways, industrial zones, landfill sites, and ongoing construction, as well as the likelihood of future infrastructure that could exacerbate pollution. Landscaping and green buffers should also be examined critically, taking into account the type of vegetation used, maintenance plans, and the actual extent of green cover, rather than relying solely on visual appeal.

Akash Vashishtha, an environmental activist and lawyer, points out that fresh air and clean, potable water are intrinsic to the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. While developers may offer air-purification technologies within residential complexes, residents inevitably have to step outside their homes, making the external environment just as critical.

According to Vashishtha, builders must therefore focus on creating a genuinely healthy ambience by ensuring adequate blue and green infrastructure within projects. Lush green cover, open spaces and water bodies should be treated as essential prerequisites, not marketing promises. Buyers, he says, must be cautious and insist on minimum condition precedents, ensuring that these commitments are embedded into the project from the outset.

A critical safeguard for homebuyers is verifying the approved layout plan. Buyers should ask for and scrutinise this document to check the extent of green areas, sanctioned FAR, provision for water bodies, water quality and the permitted rate of groundwater extraction. Too often, projects promise expansive green cover in brochures, but deliver far less on the ground, he told Hindustan Times Real Estate.

Vashishtha adds that quality of life is ultimately determined by the surrounding environment. Luxury amenities lose relevance if a locality routinely records high AQI, as residents cannot remain indoors at all times and remain vulnerable to health risks. He also cautions buyers to assess project density, as higher density places greater strain on infrastructure and leads to increased vehicular pollution.

For those considering projects in emerging cities or even peripheral locations, quality determinants such as groundwater levels, noise pollution, traffic conditions 10 years down the line, and declining water tables must be carefully evaluated.

Research, he stresses, is key. A holistic assessment of environmental, infrastructural and regulatory factors is essential for making a wise real estate choice that ensures a sustainable quality of life.

Urban experts say that isolated project-level solutions cannot replace comprehensive city-wide environmental planning. “You can build a forest within a project and still struggle with AQI if the surrounding urban environment remains polluted. Filtration systems help at a micro level, but the real question is how cities reduce the pollution they generate in the first place,” said Sarang Kulkarni, managing director of Descon Ventures.

A real estate expert offers a contrarian view that the demand–supply gap in NCR is nearly four times wider than in other major cities, with demand far outstripping available housing stock.

“This dynamic is not new. Air quality was significantly worse in 2018, followed by the Covid-19 disruption, yet property prices continued to rise. Between 2017 and 2019 alone, residential prices in Gurugram jumped nearly fourfold. The market’s price trajectory made it clear that prices in NCR have historically been agnostic to pollution levels, driven instead by structural undersupply and sustained demand,” said Samir Jasuja, founder and CEO of PropEquity.