Building Houses, Financing Homes: India's Rapidly Growing Housing and Housing Finance Markets for the Low-Income Customer
This paper presents findings from a study commissioned by the National Housing Bank on India's rapidly growing housing and housing finance markets for the low-income population.
In the last three years, the low-income housing market has seen a series of encouraging developments. Due to the efforts of stakeholders committed to developing commercially viable housing for the lower-income segments, there are currently more than 25 developers in urban areas building good quality, multi-family units in the USD 6,500 to USD 15,100 range. This move towards a more sustainable supply equation has been fueled by:
- Growth of new cities that are starting to see supply of low income housing;
- New mix of developers that include small developers, larger, more established developers, and some corporate players;
- Emphasis on the importance of new ideas by these developers.
Current developments indicate that the business model is approaching scale through geographic expansion by national or regional players, and replication by local players. The paper estimates that in the fiscal year 2010-2011, there will be between 25,000 to 50,000 houses on sale in the market, and an exponential increase in this number in the near future.
