The amazing response to the DLF initial public offering (IPO) – the Rs 9,000 crore offer was subscribed 3.5 times – seems to corroborate a belief that many of have intuitively held all along: That there is a huge upside to be had from investing in the real estate sector. So despite doubts expressed over valuation, the precise status of DLF’s ownership of the land and so on, the issue was snapped up. Not without reason it would seem. Look around you. Almost everyone you know has an anecdote of some friend or acquaintance whose parents were smart enough to invest in a house in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar or Mumbai’s Malabar Hills or Chennai’s Adayar or Calcutta’s Park Street, or any of the other premium localities in our metros and big cities and is now sitting on a virtual goldmine. Why? Because, the argument goes, populations and incomes keep rising but the supply of land is fixed. Ergo, house prices can only go up.