Construction for 4.9 million units has begun and 2.6 million units of which have been completed. Given the past trend, additional 1.64 million houses are likely to be sanctioned by December 2019, making it highly possible to achieve the 10 million houses target by 2022. Projected subsidy disbursement over next 3 year for the same is projected to INR 1 trillion.
Only a paltry number of developers have built housing that meets the Government’s criteria for incentivized affordable housing in 2019. ANAROCK data reveals that of the total housing supply of 1,39,490 units in the top 7 cities H1 2019, merely 39,840 units meet these criteria. The Government’s recent Budget ‘bonanza’ of an additional INR 1.5 lakh tax deduction on interest repayment of home loans availed till March 2020 will benefit very few people in urban India.
The Indians think instead of media hyperbole of big measures many of the small but practical measures can go a long way to ensure a house for each family, if not each individual. Some of the suggested measures may not make the government popular, and hence the Indians are not convinced with the promise of housing for all.
Affordable housing was given the much-coveted infrastructure status, and the very definition of affordable housing has been tweaked to accommodate more inventory under this key category. Moreover, the previously highly speculative markets of NCR and MMR have been tamed and are, in fact, leading the thrust of affordable housing today.
The share of mid-market houses costing INR 20-50 lakh in the overall residential sales in the country has been progressively rising, touching an all-time high of 42 percent of total transactions in the second half of the current financial year 2018-19, according to data released today by India’s largest marketplace for new homes Square Yards.