Over the past two years, the central government had taken various steps to ease the supply side as well as the demand side issues impacting the affordable housing sector in India. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), a flagship scheme promoted by the government, has received a slew of measures to enable private participation and spur the supply side for affordable housing. With infrastructure status being accorded to the sector in last year’s budget, developers were provided the opportunity to gain access to lower-cost credit for longer tenures, which should improve the cash flows of their projects. In the 2018-19 budget, the allocation towards PMAY has been raised from INR 15,000 crores to INR 23,000 crores. Additionally, a few months ago, GST for affordable and low-cost housing was rationalized from the previous 12% to 8%. These, in addition to various measures that were taken in 2016 are likely to provide significant impetus to the sector. Affordable housing has been a buzzword for more than a decade now, with successive governments looking to tap affordable housing as a medium to bridge the housing shortage gap in India –most of which is in the mid income and low-income categories. However, the segment hasn’t really gained the required momentum to address this gap. A major reason has been the lack of private participation in the segment.