The much talked about segment of real estate has gained momentum speedily. As part of the
initiative initiated by the Prime Minister to provide affordable housing to all, affordable housing
projects have been a motive by the government to provide an own house to all the sections of the
society so that nobody remains homeless. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was launched in June.
Affordable housing refers to the housing units that are affordable by the section of society whose
income is below the median household income. The price related to affordable housing will vary
depending upon the regions. The affordable housing units for the metropolitan regions should have a
capping area of 30 square meters and for non-metropolitans the area should be 60 square meters.
Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. fall under the metropolitan
region and rest of the areas would lie under the later one.
The affordable housing projects have a high rate of absorption as there is a lot of demand for the
low-cost units. The affordable housing factor is going to benefit as the land cost is going to be lower
in the areas where affordable housing has to take place. The developers should bring projects
according to the need of buyers and investors. It’s quite clear that there are people who are still
aspiring for own houses so the developers should work in the same direction to maintain a
consistency in the market. According to the reports, 1.77 million people are still homeless in India
and most of them are relying on the rented properties. The statistics clearly show that there is a high
demand for housing units and preferably these housing units should be easily affordable by the
majority. The demand for affordable housing projects is rapid says the industry experts.
Approximately, 12,000 applications belonging to the middle and low-middle income home buyers
have been processed by different banks for interest subsidy in just two months. This number may
reach 50,000 by August says the Housing Ministry. The various initiatives taken by the financial
institutions in the form of interest reduction on home loans are paving way for the aspirants striving
to buy their first home. The enactment of GST has not only made the taxation process easier but has
also introduced transparency. These enactments are altogether fostering the market and also
encouraging people to invest.
With the existing need for affordable housing, there has been a remarkable growth in the sales of
these projects. The aim of such projects is to provide housing units to a section of society whose
income is marginally low. The total of 50% of sales was contributed by low cost housing projects
says the latest survey. The survey covered nine major cities: Noida, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gurugram,
Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad. The survey said that the launches during the
October-December 2016 were mainly the affordable sections.
“The affordable housing mission has gained momentum as both the government and financing
institutions have enabled various policies benefiting the unprivileged section of the society. Due to
these reforms, the real estate sector would sooner be recovered and regain trust from the buyers.
The positive impact of the government policies is visible as more and more people are turning up to
buy these affordable projects” says Pradeep Aggarwal, Chairman, National Council on Affordable
Housing, ASSOCHAM who is also the Co-founder & Chairman of Signature Global.