Indian Cities Face Shortage of 18.8 Million Homes

Bangalore:In India, the rate of urban housing shortage has decreased since 2007 but still, a quarter needs housing, according to the report of the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage.

The report showed that Indian cities are falling short of around 18.8 million homes. Alternatively, the current housing shortage scenario has improved in comparison with 24.7 million in 2007 which was recorded by the same group, reports Tripti Lahiri of The Wall Street Journal.

Amitabh Kundu, the chairperson of Technical group said the housing shortage problem in urban India is mainly due to the disparity between the people who are in actual need for housing and the people for whom the houses are being built. Surprisingly, the shortage for housing can diminish only when the new launch of residential projects will make enough homes for people who are homeless as well as people who are living in congested condition.

Another reason behind this major problem is the wide gap between the demand and supply of affordable housing. Although a lot many residential developments coming up in Indian cities but, the maximum of such projects are only affordable for high net worth individuals (HNIs) or upper middle income group. Therefore, section that needs affordable housing end up living in congested or ancient dwelling.

Housing shortage of almost 19 million signifies that urban India does not have enough housing option for a wide section of people. According to the report, around 81 million of such households as of March 2012 still exist in urban India.