School of Architecture

Affordable housing
– its need and
December 6
2018
necessity

With high rise in a population density, there is a rapid growth in

urbanization which led to a huge demand for urban land in India. Under the guidance-
Thus bridging the gap between the housing need and the Ar. Deepa Mane
availability of satisfactory dwellings. K.L.E TECH University
Huballi, Karnataka

JAGRUTHI .A. BAFNA

01FA15BAT014

VII SEM
ABSTRACT
This paper gives a synopsis of housing affordability. Due to the constant rising or doubling of
population from 1980 to 2018, where the major population of our country is below income
group, affordable living is the major concern for the government of India, which led to the
affordable housing scheme, collaborating with public and private partnership. HOME, a basic
necessity to every human that exists on earth, a shelter where one lives, grows, nourishes and
builds their dreams. It not only provides shelter but also gives the sense of security, a feeling
of place which is more comforting and required by everyone. And keeping this situation,
MICRO HOUSING MOVEMENT, as a solution to a rising population started, a small house
includes all the essentials, which are the basics to be given, which occupies less area,
sustainable and achieves higher level energy efficiency and cost effective for a growing
population. The aim of the paper is to understand an affordable housing, its types, need and
necessity in India.

AIM
The aim of the paper is to understand the reason and issues behind the fall of housing
shortage and defining the gap between the housing need and the availability of satisfactory
dwellings.

1. INTRODUCTION The Tiny house and Social Movement

advocating for a simple living in a small homes.
In rural – urban development, India being one
A tiny house is a residential structure that falls
of the largest and populated countries in the
around 500 square feet. People look forward for
world, where the economic condition is lagging
the homes that provide them an easier and
behind when compared to other countries. India
simpler life. The main aim of the design is to
is a developing country having 30% population
develop micro housing community that provides
of high income group and other 70% are middle
shelter to every user. Though micro apartments
income group and low income group. Housing
are smaller in size, but a good design through
affordability is a major issue affecting both, the
accurate measures of architecture, selection of
regional level and the users. The main reason
furniture and material selection can make an
behind the factors contributing the issues
ideal space for living. The paper will show the
related to housing affordability in and around
aim of research through various case studies and
the world is the progressive and rapid increase
this will allow for analysis of the material that
in population, as the cities were not designed
are used and the sustainable design measures
according to the population. The growing
taken. The successful project of a designer is
population has led to the shortage of land,
based on his ability to design a small space that
housing shortfall which severely stressed on the
feels larger.
existing basic amenities such as water, open
spaces, etc. Despite of decreasing the family 2. KEYWORD
size the size of homes grew. An expertise began
to recognise micro housing movement as a Affordable housing need, issues in development
solution to a rising population. of housing
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Key words
3. Methodology
4. Affordable housing
4.1 Why affordable housing?
4.1.1 Urbanisation and housing shortage in India
4.2 Issues in the development of the housing
4.2.1 Availability of land
4.2.2 Home finances
4.2.3 Conclusions
5. Need and necessity of affordable housing
5.1 Policy framework by government
5.2 housing need and necessity
5.3 Approach to affordable housing
6. Conclusions
7. Bibliography
8. Appendices
3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of this report is to understand
affordable housing, its various types and why in
today’s era we need an affordable housing for
the people of low income group who cannot
afford a house which provides shelter and fulfils
basic amenities and for the low class people,
due to the fail in equal citizen right. Through
analysing case studies and various research
paper on housing affordability, the paper
concludes on the issues that why there is so
much of gap between the total demand and the
total stock of houses.
4. AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Affordable housing is a fundamental right, as it
fulfils basic human need for shelter, as well as it
contributes to the well being of both parents and
children. There is no clear-cut definition of the
term “affordable”, as it is a correlative concept
and has several meanings in different context.
In the context of urban housing, affordability
means a provision of an “adequate shelter”,
ensuring security within the means of common
households on a sustained basis.
It also states, affordable housing is provided to
those whose needs are not met by the open
market. According to the task force on
affordable housing set up by the MHUPA on
2008, affordable housing for various segments
is divided by the size of dwelling units and
housing affordability is derived by the income
of the household population.
For living in decent affordable housing, the
stress is reduced due to lessening of concern
that high housing cost leads to eviction and
foreclosure, this in turn leads to the fewer
physical and mental health.
4.1 WHY AFFORDABLE HOUSING?
Developing affordable housing projects are
eminent today for India's developers as there is
so much of real requirement in this segment.
The reasons why affordable housing never took
off was the issue of the applicant not having
enough money to give the margin for taking a
housing loan. Thus, the government of India
has done three things to make it affordable.
First, by giving a subsidy of the 6.5 per cent at
the lowest rung of the ladder. Secondly, it is
crediting the entire subsidy of a 20-year loan to
the loan account of an applicant, which reduces
EMI, which further makes it more affordable to
the applicant and Thirdly, they have allowed
withdrawals from the EPFO to the extent of 90
per cent of the amount for housing in case there
is a group of eight other people who are doing
so for a house in the same society.
4.1.1 URBANISATION AND
HOUSING SHORTAGE IN INDIA
As per 2011 census, the country had a
population of 1,238 millions, out of which 31%
live in urban areas. From 2001-11, the increase
in level of urbanisation from 27.81% to
31.16%. Thus resulting in growing population
in urban areas which led to the problems of
land shortage, housing shortfall and congested
transit which severely affected the basic
amenities such as water, power and open
spaces of town and cities. Urbanisation has
increasingly led people live in slums and
squatters settlements and deteriorated housing
conditions of economically weaker sections of
the society. Currently there exists a wide gap
between the demand and supply of housing
both in terms of quantity and quality. The
technical group constituted by Ministry of
Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
(MHUPA), estimated 24.71 million for 66.30
million households for 10th Five – year plan in
the country of urban housing shortage. In the
current time of 26.53 million dwelling units for
75.01 million households and due to the
backlog of housing, a minimum of 30 million
additional houses will be required by 2020.
However, the total dwelling in the segment is
insufficient when compared to existing units.
Thus, the housing requirements for lower
income group and middle income group are
neglected and that led to the huge dearth in the
supply of affordable houses demanded by
income group in India.
4.2 ISSUES IN DEVELPOMENT OF
THE HOUSING
The demand for housing in the affordable
segment has increased in cities due to a large
migrant population. The main reasons for rise
in shortage of affordable housing is lack of
availability of urban land, rising construction
costs and regulatory issues while lack of access
to home finance for low-income groups are
constraints on the demand side.
4.2.1 LACK OF URBAN LAND
AVAILABILITY
With high rise in a population density, there is a
rapid growth in urbanisation which led to a
huge demand for urban land in India. The
housing shortage has been further worsening
artificially by conceived central, state and
municipal regulations. As a result, the land
price in India is much at higher level. Strict
regulations initiated by government, where not
implemented correctly, which led to a rampant
corruption as there are multiple stakeholders
having large stakes in real estate development.
India is facing a housing shortage, which is
comprised by families of the weaker and low
income groups, whose actual income makes it
impossible for them to own the cheapest
available housing unit.
4.2.2 HOME FINANCE
Despite of having an extensive network of
financial institutions, banks, and low income
groups still lack access to the home finances.
Housing projects requires a lot of finance,
which is not easy to arrange and can be rather
expensive. Therefore, a proper financing
mechanism is the backbone of any affordable
housing. Without developing adequate
financing mechanisms or making available
special financial packages to both the
developers as well as to the house purchasers,
housing projects cannot aim to succeed. To
subdue the cost of finances, the period of
construction should be reduced to the bare
minimum, with the help of modern technology.
4.2.3 CONCLUSIONS
Undoubtedly, shelter is one of the basic
needs of every human being. In any civilised
society, each and every citizen should be
provided with a reasonably decent and
liveable shelter or housing/dwelling unit. The
today government has to work relentlessly to
achieve this goal. It is good that the present
government has bound itself with a mandate
of achieving this goal. If all the issues are
carefully put to practice, by government of
India, this goal, which appears utopian at the
moment, may definitely become feasible. It
would be ideal if all of us, that is, architects,
town planners and engineers, could find
ourselves with the mandate of the
government and ensure that each and every
citizen of India has a shelter over his head by
2022.
5. NEED AND NECESSITY OF
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
5.1 POLICY FRAMEWORK BY
GOVERNMENT
There are several policies adopted by the
government and initiated in the delivery of
affordable housing for the EWS, LIG and
local MIG. The first ever national level
housing policy was formulated in 1988. It
was followed by intervention of public
sectors and related developments of human
settlements in India. With the formulation of
National housing policy, National housing
and habitat policy in 1998. The initiatives of
this policy focused on the transition of public
sector role as ‘facilitator’, increase in role of
the private sectors, decentralisation,
development of tax and concessions,
accelerated flow of housing finance, cost
effective, and pro-poor technology.
However, all these policies were
encompassing and applicable to both the
rural and urban areas.
Taking into account the challenges of required
shelters and growth of slum area, the policy
specific to urban areas, the central initiated
National Urban Housing and Habitat policy in
2007.
In Karnataka, the board of industrial area
development, it first acquires land and then allots
to the industries. Similarly, if the government
could set the clear guidelines of what affordable
housing should be and make the land availability
possible, then its developer’s responsibility in
developing the housing affordability.
5.2 HOUSING NEED AND NECESSITY
The rapid growth of urbanization in India today
has made a necessity of the development of
Affordable Housing. Most of the metropolis has
shortfall in them, which resulted in escalation of
informal settlements. The escalation of these
settlements has led to the deterioration of the
landscape. This also caused the destructive effects
on the planned city growth. Thus, the troublesome
of the government authorities is the development
of the large scale Affordable Housing projects.
The factors contributing to these failures are
shortfall in land parcel, high construction price,
regulatory approach, inadequate finance,
corruption and identification of beneficiaries.
Therefore, an inclusive framework is crucial to
achieve an Affordable Housing in India.
Housing incompetence in India has both
quantitative and qualitative aspects. The housing
issues have been worsening over the years due to
(i) rapid growth of population, (ii) urbanisation
and (iii) inadequate housing. There is qualitative
housing problem in between urban and rural
areas, where as the problem of urban areas is, by
the congestion, slums and squatter settlements,
and the rural area are characterised by the absence
of essential services and poor environmental
conditions. In 19th Century, the housing problems
where physical problems, such as bad housing
conditions, lack of ventilation, lack of running
water, inadequate drainage systems, etc. The
economic implication of such housing were not
faced, but the problems of providing physically
adequate housing, the working people could
afford as rent was faced,
As a society changes, so its need and
expectations change, in housing as in
everything else. The concept behind
housing desires is based on the
household’s preferences and aspirations.
In some circumstances housing desires
merge with both need and demand of
housing. The main problem of housing
arises, when the gap between housing
‘need’ and availability of dwelling units
(satisfactory) exists. This gap explains
numerical shortage in dwelling units to
accommodate all the households in need.
The critical problems rose in India such as,
overcrowding, homelessness, shared
accommodation and lack of amenities are
the important factors to be known as it is
absolutely necessary to diagnose which
factor is responsible, since the remedies
are different for each factors.
The provision of housing will ensure
weather all the needs are met, an
allocation is as important as building. Is
the social aim of housing policy is that of
giving everyone? The core of housing
policy is to ensure that ‘need’ is no
regardless of the level of effective
demand. The approaches to the solution of
housing demand in India is characterised
in private and public sectors. In private
sector, relief on tax mortgage interest, rent
control, etc. reduces the actual cost of
renting a house or owning. Whereas, in
public sectors, the dwellings are let out to
tenants because if their housing needs, rent
rebates are also available due to their
inadequate to meet the rents. Both the
approaches meet the necessity of housing
demand.
Housing shortage leads to a gap between
the total demand and number of dwelling
units. There are many reasons for arise in
housing shortage ; rapid growth in
population, internal and external
movement of population, change in
families and household structures, lack of
sufficient supply of residential units due to
the financial and material resources, etc.
The normative housing standards should not only Executors: private developers, public
reflect the socio-economic conditions but also the private partnership, public sectors firms
climate and cultural differences that are which requires to be hold and maintain
characterised according to the regions and classes rental accommodations with adequate
of the households. The analysis say that estimate support from the first two groups.
of housing shortage depends on a minimum
acceptable housing to adopted for and thus, A common thread of Housing
keeping these consideration, the National Development is required to bind these
Building Organisation has been estimating the groups together such that they work in a
housing shortage from time to time. unified manner and reach the actual target
of a Housing Affordability.
5.3 APPROACHES TO AFFORDABLE
HOUSING 6. CONCLUSION
Development of large scale affordable
The aim of creating affordable housing is to
housing is today’s greatest necessity of
provide shelter which is basic fundamental right
urban India. Today the cities lack in low-
to all. Providing of affordable housing should
income housing, which has resulted in
encompass both – enabling people to buy and to
escalation in slums, squatters and
rent. The present strategies on which affordable
unorganised estates across. Today, where
housing is being concentrated on the ability of
the slum dwellers and low income class
the people to buy, these strategies requires a
people are deprived of basic amenities and
myriad of agencies from public and private
failed to be an equal citizen, it is
sectors to work together for the development of
prejudicial to the planned growth of cities.
the housing. A private sector comprises
The large scale urban development on
residential developers, who develop housing
daily basis is increasingly and difficult
projects and sell them in the open market. A
due to lack of urban land availability,
government sector comprises Urban Local
congested transit routes, lack of finance
Bodies and Urban Development Department,
and regulatory hurdles. However, in today
which are responsible for laying down the
it is very important to recognise and
guidelines and bylaws for Affordable Housing.
address these issues so that a framework
The Ministry of Environment and Forest have
can be established in ensuring the
imposed certain restrictions of limit in land use in
urban areas for housing project development, development of affordable housing.
resulting in lack of urban land and thus increases
in land cost, which regulates the policies of RBI
that affects the interest rates, thus has a major
impact on the ability of the home buyers. A
people requirement differentiates the approaches
towards Affordable Housing. The groups which
are required to work in sync to make a housing
Affordable are –
Providers: government departments, urban local
bodies and research institute which needs to
provide the target groups with approval, technical
and financial supports.
Enablers: NGO’s, self help groups and registered
societies which helps to identify the users groups,
who initiates the common interest and establish
channels of communication.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

BUILDING TYPE BASICS FOR HOUSING – Stephen A. Kliment, Series Founder and Editor
Robert Chandler, John Clancy, David Dixon, Joan Goody, Geoffrey Wooding, with Jean Lawrence

PUBLIC HOUSING – Prof. M. A. MUTTALIS, Dr. MOHO, AKBAR ALLI KHAN (Editors)
Published by S.K. Ghai, Managing Director, Sterling Publishers Pvt.

8. APPENDICES

 http: //www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/housing/strategic/types.aspx
 //economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/62066464.cms?utm_source=conte
ntofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321937252_A_CASE_STUDY_-
_AFFORDABLE_HOUSING
 http://www.isocarp.net/Data/case_studies/2397.pdf
 /ISSNP_adopted%2011.2_201511041335060419.
 http://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/wp-
content/uploads/2015/08/iihs_rf_housing_reduced.pdf
 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/how-to-tackle-india-s-affordable-housing-challenge
 https://www.ijser.org/researchpaper/The-Challenges-in-Affordable-Housing-for-Urban-Poor-in-
India-Deciphering-the-Housing-for-All-by-2022-A-Comprehensive-Approach-to-Decrement-
Housing-Shortage-A-Case-Study-of-Delhi.pdf
 LiveabilityStandards.pdf
 Shelter-apr16.pdf
 tangible parameters for affordable low cost housing in India – CoA
https://www.coa.gov.in/show_img.php?fid=182
 12RFAffordableHousingFinance.pdf
 1.3-Apartment-Design-BCA-Class-2-Construction.pdf
 Affordable_Housing_in_India_2012.