Demand For Affordable Housing Projects In Urban Areas

Bangalore: In urban India, there is a huge gap between demand in supply of housing, in terms of quantity as well as quantity.

By the end of 10th Five-Year Plan, the urban housing shortage in India was expected to be around 24.71 million for 66.30 million households, as per estimates by the Technical Group formed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), reports TNN.

The technical group also expected that 88 per cent of this urban housing shortage will pertain to houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and a percent of 11 per cent for Lower-Income Group (LIG).

According to developers, the time taken for government approvals, cost of construction and labour cost for affordable housing projects remains the same like normal housing; making the sale price of affordable housing lower.

Says Hemant Shah, Chairman-Hubtown Limited: "To reduce the price, the cost will have to be brought down further. While the government can play only a limited role in the cost of construction, including labour and material, I think it will do well by increasing permissible FSI for affordable housing projects. This will reduce per unit cost of land and allow creation of less costly homes," reports Economic Times.

"This negatively affects the time taken to complete projects. It also raises the cost of homes, and developers have no choice but to pass on these costs to homebuyers. Also, cost of land in Mumbai is exorbitant which is why most affordable housing projects come up in the peripheral areas where land is comparatively cheaper. Builders don't get returns in ratio of the efforts put in for such projects," says Diipesh Bhagtani, Executive Director, Jaycee homes.