A
Technical Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. Amitabh Kundu, Professor of
Economicsim JNU was set up by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty
Alleviation to estimate the Urban Housing Shortage for the 12th Five Year
(2012-17). The Committee submitted its final Report to the Kumari Selja,
Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Minister of Culture
here today. The highlights of the Report are as follows:
The
housing shortage has been estimated by putting together (a) the number of households
residing in unacceptable dwelling units - computed by considering the
obsolescence factor, (b) those residing in unacceptable physical and social
conditions -worked out using overcrowding/congestion factor, and (c) the
houseless households.
Housing
shortage would not be a major problem if there is no mismatch between the
people for whom the houses are being built and those who need them. Indeed, if
the newly built houses were available to the houseless, squatters, slum
dwellers and those living in extremely congested conditions, the shortage would
be small. It would, however, be unrealistic to assume that the houseless HHs
and those living in unacceptable conditions - in other words, those who could
be described as in “Housing Poverty” - would have the
affordability and access to the burgeoning supply in the market. The rapid
increase in the number of vacant houses, the fierce competition among the
private builders and aggressive advertisements to woo the prospective buyers,
clearly underline the mismatch. Almost all the buyers of the new housing stock
already live in acceptable dwelling units and either plan shifting from rented
to self owned houses or are only attempting to improve their living conditions
by going to a bigger house. There will be a few among them who would be buying
for owning a second house, for future/occasional occupancy, rental earning or
for pure speculative reasons. On the other hand, those in ‘Housing Poverty’ mostly
do not have the means to enter the housing market to claim ownership or acquire
rental housing.
The
Technical Group has estimated that at the start of the 12th Five Year Plan
(2012-17), the total housing shortage in the country is 18.78 million. The
below table exhibits the components that contribute toward the estimated urban
housing shortage at the start of the 12th Five Year Plan, as of March 2012:
|
|
Requirement/ Shortage (in Mn)
|
|
|
Households
living in non-serviceable katcha
|
0.99
|
|
|
Households
living in obsolescent houses
|
2.27
|
|
|
Households
living in congested houses requiring new houses
|
14.99
|
|
|
Households
in homeless condition
|
0.53
|
|
|
Total
|
18.78
|
The
earlier concern regarding a mis-match between the people from whom the houses
are being built and those who need them is clearly underlined in the following
distribution of the estimated shortage across different economic categories. It
exhibits that the maximum shortage exists for the EWS/LIG Section of society
whose need is unable to get translated into demand due to issues of
affordability.
|
Economic Category %
|
Distribution of 2012 Housing
shortage among Economic categories (in Millions)
|
|
|
56.2 (EWS)
|
10.55
|
|
|
39.5 (LIG)
|
7.41
|
|
|
4.3 (MIG +)
|
0.82
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
18.78
|
|
|
|
|
Kumari Selja while
unveiling the Urban Housing Shortage figures of All India and State level have
said that to reduce this gap in demand and supply of housing, Centre State/ULBs
and the real state sector should work in tandem and built a low cost
affordable housing.
The
report further recognizes that eliminating housing shortage during the period
of the Twelfth Five Year Plan, over and above maintaining the current rate of
construction, will be a challenging task, even with full involvement and cooperation
of private sector and builder’s lobby. It is, therefore, proposed to meet this
challenge through alternate and complementary strategies;
Ø Housing to be made a part of
infrastructure sector or declared to be an industry, so that it is possible to
incentivise the construction activities to deliver an appropriate mix of
dwelling units to meet the needs of the people in housing poverty
Ø Bring in the vacant houses into the
housing market through taxation and incentive policies
Ø Households that have the problem of
congestion must be enabled to create extra space or build extra rooms through
support from public agencies
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