affordability


The economics of developing affordable rental housing complexes

By on September 7th 2021

As a response to the COVID-19 migrant crisis and in furtherance of the Government of India’s ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ mission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) programme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme to improve the living conditions of urban poor/migrant workers. Although the initiative is a novel step, it operational aspects demand more than what is being offered for enabling private/public agencies to leverage the opportunity and turn it into a grand scale programmatic intervention.  

Read More

The Geography of Affordable Housing in Chennai

By , and on June 4th 2021

Affordable housing in Chennai means a unit costing between ₹ 8 and 20 lakh (₹8-10.2 lakh for EWS and ₹16-20 lakh for LIG households), based on the Deepak Parekh Committee’s definition of affordability. In practice, however, state agencies as well as private builders define affordable housing by size, referring to units of 300 to 600 square feet.  This approach has contributed to making most “affordable” housing produced in the city unaffordable to EWS and LIG households.

Read More

Insights on rental practices in a mature sites and services resettlement site in Chennai

By on March 9th 2021

A major political question for governments around the globe is to determine which form of housing tenure – ownership or rental – would best fit their housing policy agenda. It is now well understood that both forms of tenure need to be taken into consideration as complementary and integral parts of urban housing markets. However, rental housing is not a distinct category, but an umbrella term which covers diverse manifestation of renting a home and various forms of supply. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2019, this piece explores the rental practices in Ambedkar Nagar, a 1990s sites and services scheme in Chennai, India in the context of recent changes in rental legislation in the state of Tamil Nadu where Chennai is located.

Read More

Overview of urban house ownership in India

By on February 19th 2021

The pattern of house ownership in India varies significantly between rural and urban areas. As against 95% in rural areas, only 69% of the total households in India own houses. This pattern is not surprising as a large share of the total urban population are migrants. This note provides an overview of the house ownership in urban India.

Read More

Emerging partnerships in low-income housing finance: Q&A with Manikandan K.P.

By on December 28th 2020

As the housing finance ecosystem adapts to service low-income housing, targeted interventions that build trust and connect disparate actors in the housing supply chain can bring transformative change. In this Q&A, Institution Builder and India Housing Federation co-founder Manikandan K. P. points out the opportunities and insights that led to a successful housing finance intervention for households availing the beneficiary-led construction (BLC) component of India’s flagship public housing scheme, the PMAY.

Read More

A Partnership Approach: Increasing Access to Formal Micro Housing Finance for Low Income Households in Tamil Nadu

By on December 24th 2020

This case study outlines a collaboration between the Indian Housing Federation (IHF) and the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, the state level nodal agency for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) in Tamil Nadu, to enhance the availability of micro housing finance for low-income communities through formal channels.

Read More

Flats are increasingly popular housing choices

By on August 21st 2020

Flats, where multiple households live in the same structure, are increasingly popular and not just in large cities in India. What does the data tell us about the implications of this rising trend?

Read More