NITI Aayog Member Rajiv Gauba said land supply and urban planning reforms will be critical to expanding affordable housing in Indian cities, calling on states and municipal authorities to unlock land and ease development norms to bring down project costs.
Addressing the National Conference on Affordable Housing Reforms, titled "Reimagining Affordable Housing: From Scheme to Sustainable Ecosystem," organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday, Gauba said the shortage of affordable housing was set to widen further as population growth and rapid urbanisation add millions of people to India's cities and towns in the coming years.
Describing land availability as being at the heart of the problem, Gauba said land accounted for a disproportionately high share of total housing project costs in several cases, making affordable housing projects less commercially viable. He was critical of the effectiveness of existing city master plans in this regard, stating that they had not succeeded in making sufficient land available for affordable housing and had, in several instances, ended up constraining land supply rather than expanding it.
"Land is the most binding constraint in the housing sector and therefore, it has to be at the centre of the reform agenda," Gauba said, calling for land and planning reforms to be prioritised to expand affordable housing at scale across the country.
Gauba referred to a joint report on affordable housing prepared by NITI Aayog and MoHUA, which proposes a set of measures to address these structural constraints, with the bulk of implementation resting with state and municipal authorities. The recommendations include expanding planned urban areas and reserving at least 10 per cent of residential land in master plans as dedicated affordable housing zones. The report also proposes raising the permissible floor area ratio for such projects, promoting transit-oriented development, land pooling and transferable development rights, easing parking and density norms, and setting up dedicated land banks for affordable housing.
Joint Secretary and Mission Director for Housing for All at MoHUA, Kuldip Narayan, who opened the proceedings with a briefing on housing reforms, suggested that authorities consider waiving land-use change fees for land earmarked for affordable housing and exempting affordable housing units from stamp duty, as measures to improve project viability and affordability for end buyers.
Gauba also highlighted the growing importance of rental housing, stressing the need to expand rental housing options for migrant workers, young professionals, students and industrial workers, alongside reforms to the underlying tenancy framework. He called for greater participation from the financial sector, emphasising the need for financial innovation and increased private capital flows into affordable housing. The conference also examined strategies to unlock vacant housing stock and improve access to rental accommodation in urban areas.
NITI Aayog Programme Director Anna Roy said affordable housing was fundamental to building inclusive, productive and resilient cities, adding that as India's urbanisation accelerates, the policy approach must evolve from simply implementing housing schemes to creating an ecosystem that continuously supports affordable housing supply. She said land, planning regulations, financing mechanisms, rental markets and institutional arrangements would all need to work together for affordable housing to remain viable and sustainable over the long term.
The conference brought together senior policymakers, experts and representatives from states, union territories and key financial institutions to deliberate on reforms for strengthening the affordable housing ecosystem. Satendra Singh, Secretary, Department of Urban Development at MoHUA, attended as Guest of Honour.
The report did not specify a timeline for states and municipal authorities to begin implementing the recommendations outlined in the NITI Aayog-MoHUA report, nor did it detail which states, if any, have already committed to adopting the proposed reforms.
Source- PIB