For years, black money in India was popularly associated with Swiss bank accounts and overseas tax havens. That narrative no longer holds.

Recent estimates show that nearly 64% of black money in India is parked in real estate, making property the single largest destination for unaccounted wealth. In contrast, equity and cash together account for barely 6%. Gold, offshore accounts, jewellery, and cash trail far behind.

This distribution reveals a deeper, structural issue.

Black money is not primarily about evading taxes anymore but it's about seeking opacity.

Financial markets like equities demand traceability. Transactions are logged, audited, and increasingly linked to PAN, Aadhaar, and digital records. Cash usage has reduced, and informal storage carries high risk. As transparency rises, unaccounted capital is pushed out.

Real estate, however, remains different.

Property transactions still allow:

• Under-reporting of deal values

• Partial cash components

• Weak enforcement of title clarity

• Fragmented state-level regulation

As a result, real estate becomes a safe parking asset for illicit wealth rather than a productive investment.

This has consequences beyond taxation.

When large volumes of black money flow into property, prices decouple from real demand. Housing becomes less affordable, land values inflate artificially, and capital that could have funded businesses, innovation, or employment gets locked into non-productive assets.

In simple terms, black money does not chase growth, it chases invisibility.

Until real estate transactions are fully transparent with clean titles, end-to-end digital trails, and strict enforcement. Capital will continue to prefer bricks over businesses.

The problem, therefore, is not just black money.
It is where the system still allows darkness to exist.