Concept, Status, and Progress of Affordable Housing in Urban India

Abstract

In urban area, the prices of real estate and land are very high. This forced the economically weaker section of the society to live in a marginal land with pitiable housing condition in combination with congestion and lack of basic amenities. The poor people can only afford cost of house up to five times of their annual income, and Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) or rent should be less than 30% of their monthly income. The high land price and cost of building materials are rising year by year especially in urban areas. So, making affordable housing and providing it to poor becomes a daunting task. The objectives of this paper are to i. throw light on the concept of affordable housing with special reference to India, ii. find out shortage of affordable urban housing among different economic categories, iii. demonstrate variation in the spatial pattern of shortage of affordable urban housing across different states in India, iv. map out progress of “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)—Housing for All” across different states in India, and v. point out problem and its possible solution relating to affordable housing for urban poor in India. Findings show that 88% of total shortage of affordable urban housing pertains to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and another 11% for Lower-Income Groups (LIG). There is state-wise variation in the shortage of affordable housing in urban India. The present rate of growth of PMAY-U is very less. Therefore, there is need for accelerating the present growth rate to achieve the target of building 18 million houses.