Affordable Housing: An Academic Perspective on Policy and Practice in India
1. Introduction
Affordable Housing is fast taking centre stage in the international as well as the national agenda in India. With housing recognised as a basic need, governments at every level are discussing ways and means to provide access to housing for its citizenry so as to increase their productive capital. The importance of affordable housing is neatly captured in the following statement by the Affordable Housing Institute quoting Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor of the RBI, in 2007, “…future national competitiveness and economic success will depend on the comparative efficiency of cities. Because housing is where jobs go to sleep at night, the quantity, quality, availability and affordability of housing becomes a key component in national economic competitiveness”.
The role and function of housing is multifaceted – housing choices impact access to infrastructure, employment, household wealth, health, education, poverty levels, maternal and child mortality, women’s participation in the workforce, and many other well-being indicators. As India seeks to improve its living conditions on a large scale, access to affordable housing becomes the first major stumbling block for its citizens.
This article addresses first a diagnosis of the issue of affordable housing (AH) and sets the context for the panel discussion which follows on the state of the AH market in India and policy interventions required to make it better. The current note sets out the academic perspective on AH : first, by defining the term affordable housing, second, by describing the need for focus on AH, third, by analysing the institutional structure of AH delivery in India. The latter part of this note analyses policy responses by various governments, international experience and lacunae that still exist.
2. Defining Affordable Housing
Framing an AH policy first involves defining what it is and what it is not: the parameters affordability is measured on. Defining AH is also important to create targeted policies aimed at making financing more accessible, providing mechanisms such as interest rate subsidies, or favourable terms on par with infrastructure financing.
Internationally, housing affordability is defined in multiple ways. One of the most commonly accepted definitions of affordability refers to housing affordability is taken as a measure of expenditure on housing to income of the household. This is also accepted by the Indian Government, which states “Affordable housing refers to any housing that meets some form of affordability criterion, which could be income level of the family, size of the dwelling unit or affordability in terms of EMI size or ratio of house price to annual income” (High Level Task Force on Affordable Housing for All, December 2008, p. 7).
Further reading:
[PDF] HOUSING FOR ALL IN INDIA (An Empirical Study on the … – IJRAR ijrar
[PDF] New frontiers and challenges for affordable housing provision in India pureadmin.qub.ac
