Housing Market tough for Meat Lovers

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Instead of the typical questions; "Do you smoke ... do you have pets ... do you have children ... or do you play loud music?", many Mumbai house hunters find themselves being asked, "Do you eat meat?", and if the answer is yes, the deal is off.

As this city of 16 million becomes the cosmopolitan main nerve of a booming Indian economy, real estate is increasingly intersecting with cuisine.

More middle-class Indians are moving in, more of them are vegetarian, and the law is on their side.

"Some people are very strict. They won't sell a home to a non-vegetarian even if he offers a higher price than a vegetarian," said real estate broker Norbert Pinto.

Vegetarianism is a custom that goes back many centuries among Hindus, Jains, and others in India. The government estimates India has some 220 million vegetarians, more than any other part of the world.

In constitutionally secular India, there's no bar to forming a housing society and making an apartment block exclusively Catholic or Muslim, Hindu or Zoroastrian.

Vegetarians say they too need segregation.

"I live in a cosmopolitan society," said Jayantilal Jain, trustee of a charity group. "But vegetarians should be given the right to admit who they want."

Rejected home-seekers have mounted a slew of court challenges to the power of housing societies to discriminate, but last year India's highest tribunal ruled the practice legal.