
Before taking such a purchase decision, you should always remember the following:
1) The Amount that you will invest in purchase, if you invest that in an Fixed Deposit; the Annual Interest that you will earn enables you to visit Mountains not once but maybe twice an year.
2) Moreover, in absence of owned property, you are free to explore new places for every visit (and repeat the places not before 15 years probably).
3) Lastly, you should always visualize and imagine thoroughly about maintenance and management of such a property for which you would probably need to incur a regular monthly expense for Guard or Housekeeper (with or without family). Apart from the monthly pestering expense, the Guard and his family might start getting too comfortable at your property and that could prove extremely dangerous for your investment.
So, in my opinion, like what is written on the truck's rear in punjabi: "vekhi ja, chhedi na"; if you were not born in the mountains, then you should just enjoy them and not hamper with them.
All my above advise stands invalid in two cases:
1) Like Kasang (Lansdowne), Mountain Trail (Mukteshwar) and West View (Ranikhet), you decide to develop a hotel and believe that you will be able to manage that business efficiently and profitably despite continuing to live in Delhi with your family.
OR
2) Like Manju Aunty at Mystic Mukteshwar Lodge or Pammi Aunty at Shringi Vatika (or Ruskin Bond), you decide to give up the urban life for good and relocate permanently to the mountains in your own house.
P.S: The latter case #2 comes into my mind a lot of times to which I think that I can still decide to live in the mountains in my old age at somebody else's cottage by paying him monthly rent (out of my earnings from my investments).
In fact, if I get lucky enough in my old age to be healthy and to be able to lead a life of a nomad-free-bird, I might want to have all my money digitized (which is available to me anywhere across the world) and would want to live my vaan-prastha and moksha stages of life freely around the world as permitted by my health
