India is known for its accommodative nature. Being a democratic nation, it is home to an enormously huge population. However, the unbalanced ratio between growing population and scarce space has led to the deficit of housing, especially amongst the lower income group.
To eradicate this issue from its roots, Govt. of India under the heads of Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), announced its flagship initiative “Pradhan Matri Awas Yojana (PMAY)” back in 2015.
This initiative, although at a progressing stage, has successfully delivered and sanctioned affordable houses in both rural and urban areas under PMAY-G and PMAY-U respectively. The scheme enables empowerment of women being sole house owners and strengthening the role of older people, transgenders, and other minorities being homeowners.
However, post covid, the demand for affordable housing has seen a steep decline. Statistically speaking, till 2022, over 122.69 lakh sanctions and 65 lakh houses were completed under PMAY-U while over 2.28 crore sanctions and 1.75 crore houses were completed under PMAY-G. The benefits of the scheme trickles down to other scathing issues of water shortage and hygiene.
The exhilarating negativity in the market did not leave the residential market from its scare and its is evidently reflected in the statistics. The sales share of affordable segment saw a sharp decline from 38% in 2019, to 26% in 2022, to only 20% in 2024. Resonating with the falling demand, the supply end is also negatively impacted with a sharp decline to 18% in Q1 2024 from 40% of overall supply in 2019. These declines raise a huge concern since it diminishes the impact of the scheme that aims at resolving the huge problem of slum dwellers and ultimately poverty.
In order to regain the momentum of the scheme, this year’s budget has stated some concrete and boosting solutions to revive the affordable housing segment. The budget announcement approximated INR 2.2 lakh crore central assistance to build 1 crore affordable homes for urban poor and middle class.
Observing the struggling growth of this segment post covid, this initiative was catalyzed with INR 10 lakh crore assistance under PMAY-U to address the needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families in the next 5 years. The elongated part of the plan includes providing 3 crore affordable homes across rural and urban geographies which is clubbed with ancillary support like lower interest rates on home loans and subsidies.
The initiatives this version is aiming at reviving the falling segment and make a comeback with a better and strategical implementation. Ultimately, the aim of the scheme is not only to provide shelter, but to provide a lifestyle.
