HOUSING

What is the housing problem in India?

 Housing problem in India is very chronic, particularly among the low income group.
 The housing problem revolves around following important factors such as :-
 Scarcity of land
 Rapid growth in Population
 Shortage of housing
 Increase in the cost of construction

Scarcity of land
 Housing is the major consumer of land and the availability of land is less as compared
to number of people.
 India has 17% of human population of world and the availability of land is 2.3%.

Housing is viewed in two context:-

Housing

Qualitative Quantitative

Qualitative aspect:-

 Structure – pucca house, semi-pucca house, katcha house.

 The quality of urban housing, it is estimated that about 45% of urban population live
in pucca houses, 35% live in semi-pucca houses and 20% live in kat cha houses.

Total Requirement of Housing during the Eleventh Plan Period

New Requirement
Households
- Pucca 6.00
- Semi Pucca 0.89
- Kutcha 0.38
Total Housing Stock 7.27

 Tenurial status of households – the portion of households living in owned houses is

increasing steadily in urban areas and those living in rented houses are decreasing
both in urban as well as rural areas.
 Households and number of rooms- According to recent surveys conducted in
metropolitan cities above 45% people live in one room tenements; about 15% in two
room tenements; about 10% in three room tenements; a lucky lot of 5% live rather
 comfortably, in four or more roomed flats, while 25% live in squatter settlements,
slums and foot-paths.

Quantitative aspect:-

 Housing situation can be measured on the basis of number of house and households
 Households- unit of family with independent kitchen.
 No. of houses = no. of households

Shortage of housing

 Housing shortage = (no. Of households – no. Of houses) + kachcaha houses +no. Of

households to be replaced.

 In India there is shortage of houses in economically weaker sections.

 Low supply of housing for low income earners
 As per 11th 5 year plan
 Shortage of 24.71 million dwellings
 Close to 99 % of shortage in EWS & LIG segment

 Short Supply of residential dwellings

 Supply shortfall existing since post independence
 In 2005 estimated demand is 209.5 million, supply is 189.7 Million
 Demand – Supply gap is narrowing
 Natural growth of urban areas:-
 Rural population growth - 0.7%
 Urban population growth- 2.1%

The urban population has therefore increased by about 30millin in the last decade and
now about 150million people live in towns and cities, ranging in population from 5000 to
5million. This has resulted not only in over-crowding and congestion in towns and cities
but also aggravated acute shortage of housing.

India has lifted 59.7 million people out of slum conditions since 2000. Slum prevalence
fell from 41.5% in 1990 to 28.1% in 2010. This is a relative decrease of 32%.

Absence of portable water supply 28% houses does not have tap or access to portable
water.

Absence of sanitation or sewerage facility. Only 28% of houses have sanitation facility.

There is a short supply of electricity.

High degree of vacancy – 15 to 20% of house are vacant.

High degree of destruction on housing stock on annual basis. 3%to5% of houses are lost
due to natural disaster.

High cost of land or non availability of unauthorised land. Most of land available is
unauthorized.

Housing problems is more acute on the larger urban areas.

Problem of legal framework rent laws. Laws are tilted on the favour of tenant not in the
favour of owner.
 Non utilization of full potential of the land or lack of optimum utilisation of land.

In India there is problem of plotted land than flat development.

Size of plot is a problem because there are larger plots which are lying vacant.

Minimum size of household -225sq.ft and minimum area for a person-45 sq.ft. But more
than four to five people live in a room of size 100sq.ft.

There is no rationality in fixing the size of a plot.

The cost of construction is increased.

In India the there is longer time of construction.

There is no mechanisation or standardisation of housing.

Registration fee of housing is high. High interest rate, high stamp duty or transport fee
etc.
Poor supply of housing in EWS and LIG.

There is a problem of poor maintenance and upkeep of houses which is particularly seen
in houses with low rental values.

What are solutions to the problems of housing in India?

To solve the problem of housing in India government should reduce the cost of
transaction fee.
Provision of land for adequate housing.

Reduce the cost of land and increase the supply of land.

Government should promote flatted development over plotted development.

To encourage Co-operative sector and should be at priority for provision of land.

Government should make a law mandatory that no household should own more than
one house.

All buildings should be constructed according to byelaws so that they can withstand
natural calamities/disasters.

Standardisation, pre-fabrication, mechanisation should be provided so that the building

becomes cost effective.

There should be upgradation in kutcha houses to semi-pucca or pucca houses.

There should be a provision of standard design of houses.

Penalty should be charged if a house is left vacant.

Proper provisions for supply of electricity, water.