Affordable Housing Solutions:

Housing is one of the necessities of livelihood. In today’s world, housing has become one of the most expensive needs. What is perceived as ‘good housing’ is a dream for billions of people around the globe, even impossible for lower-income groups living in cities. Housing has now become the biggest challenge with the ever-rising population, especially in India where approximately 60% of the population is young.

This decade could be a defining 10 years for transforming the housing ecosystem. Daily wage workers, employees of the unorganized sector are often the ones who struggle all their lives while living in the poorest of housing facilities. Many find renting an independent room very expensive, so they live in groups, adjusting to a one-room housing facility. The increasing population is putting enormous pressure on the existing natural resources and it’s the right time for us, humans to consciously take steps to reduce this pressure and move towards an ecologically sustainable way of life, by understanding our actual housing needs and how people prefer to live, defining the first objective of the paper.

This paper explores the housing needs of the immigrant and migrant youth workforce living in metro cities and their perception of affordable and sustainable housing. To initiate the shift towards creating a more sustainable, eco-friendly world, the housing structures should also become more eco-friendly, sustainable, and affordable which also defines the second objective of this paper. Though there have been many promising housing models up in the market, none has been implemented on a large scale basis because what people need is often misunderstood.

Fortunately, there are communities, organizations, and individuals working on building affordable, modern, compact, and eco-friendly houses, mostly designed for bustling big cities with high population density. People in India are continuously migrating from rural areas to urban areas (most preferably big cities) in search of a better life and good income. They often end up living more than half of their lives in rented, poorly maintained houses.

This paper is to explore and analyze the needs and preferences, of young Indians, who want to live in a modern yet ecologically sustainable house. The technique applied is factor analysis to find out the necessities and preferences having more impact on decision making. Based on the necessity and preference factors, two sustainable and affordable housing models are selected, which can be adopted in India with little modifications.

A report titled ‘State of Working India’ was published by Azim Premji University in 2018. The report found that 82% of male and 92% of female workers earn less than 10,000 rupees per month. “if you earn more than 50,000 a month, you are in the top 1% of the workforce” stated Amit Bhosle, the lead author of the report. (Bhosle, 2019)

Another survey report published by Statista Research department in 2016, concluded that over 60% of Indian households had an average monthly income of 10,000 rupees only. They found out that 75% of rural households and 45% of urban households earned up to 10,000 rupees per month. (Statista, 2016)

This is enough evidence to realize that the majority of Indians live in or below the lower middle class. The youth from the rural areas migrate to nearby cities or metro cities looking for a better income and lifestyle. But the city lights are not diamond-studded towers, the youth from the rural areas are often found stuck at odd jobs with marginal earnings.

Good living spaces in metro cities are expensive, forcing the immigrant and migrant workers to live in apartments or houses having poor facilities. Housing, a necessity is now becoming a dream for many. Housing, one of the most essential parts of lifestyle has now become the biggest challenge for people in middle and low-income groups.

The problem is even bigger for the immigrant and migrant workers who spend a huge amount of their income on rental expenses. International and domestic migration is inevitable and it’s time to consider affordable housing solutions as an underlying business opportunity without exploiting the natural resources to their limits.