Easy finance is the key to the success of affordable housing in India

Stringent control over finance and subsidised access to it for the good ones, has pushed developers and borrowers to become far more disciplined in seeking affordable homes. Problems of timely completion, location and price as well as product price notwithstanding, PMAY has brought the largest bank of affordable homes into the urbanscape in Independent India. The Pradhan Matri Awas Yojana (PMAY), launched in 2015, was a promise to provide every Indian family a roof over its head before 2022, the 75th year of Indian Independence. Since then, we have been through the worst pandemic that the world has seen. But despite two waves of the pandemic, organised players are confident of steady business for the next few years and buyers are still queuing up. Affordable housing is a sector that has been streamlined by finance. Today, of 1.1 crore houses that the government had aimed to complete, government statistics show that 1.13 crore houses have been sanctioned and 50.18 lakh houses have already been constructed. This is an all-time high for a five-to-seven-year period. Source: MHoUA/PMAYClick here to know more… Also read: MoHUA nods proposal to build 16,488 homes in urban areas under PMAY  Maharashtra govt to offer affordable homes to sanitation workers  New pure-play affordable housing financiers to grow at 40 per cent CAGR  Will affordable housing revive residential investments?  E Jayashree Kurup is a researcher-writer and Director, Wordmeister Editorial Services Real Estate & Cities. Write to her at jkurup@asappmedia.com