The push to affordable housing by the central government seems to be finally bearing fruits. There has been an increase in the supply of and demand for affordable housing over the last quarter.
The quarter that ended in June witnessed a whopping 41% year-on-year jump in overall new housing launches across top seven cities. The maximum supply of affordable housing was with the price less than Rs. 40 lakhs.
The top 7 cities- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, have witnessed the launches of around 50,100 units during the quarter, out of which 75% of the new supply came up in MMR, NCR, Bengaluru, and Pune.
In fact, the supply in the affordable segment increased 100% during the quarter as against the previous quarter, which is primarily the driving factor of the overall growth, ET Realty quoted data from Anarock Property Consultants. Housing sale across categories rose 3% from a year ago to 60,800 units.
There has been a slight decline of 10% in unsold inventory as well. Since there are still 7 lakh unsold units as on June end, the developers are offering attractive schemes, freebies and discounts to homebuyers, so that unsold inventory can be cleared.
The surge in the activity if affordable housing seems to be the result of the central government mission ‘Housing for All by 2022.’ The mission aims to build 20 million urban housing units and 30 million rural homes.
An affordable home is typically about 250 square feet (23 square meters) in size and can cost up to 1.2 million rupees. It is usually located in the outskirts of the city where land is cheaper. According to recent data, more than 800,000 units have been completed, with about 2.8 million homes in various stages of construction.