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subject: Truly affordable Housing - Myth Or Reality ? [print this page]

Sibani Sarma
Sibani Sarma

Common problems and situations faced by lower income families in urban

India include unhygienic sanitation facilities, inaffordability of

anything but a slum, lack of necessary amenities like electricity,

water etc. The need of the hour is a paradigm shift to affordable housing

in the coming few years.

That one can spend 40 times of his/her monthly income for housing

expenditure. is an excellent thumb rule for developers and policy

makers across the board. The lower income bracket might not have the

money but they do not lack in taste. There is therefore a huge market

demand from the marginalized communities for low cost liveable housing

facilities. And this is a completely untapped potential market.

What sets back this sector is the financing on both the sides which is

not that easy to get as it is for expenditure in other sectors. Apart

from that, it takes a rigorous process of physical verification for

the approval-stamp on the loan (a micro finance approach) as the

consumers usually don't have tax returns or salary slips. Another

serious issue that crops up is the increased possibility of the

constructed houses being bought by investors (and not end-users)

hunting for further investment opportunities.

Hence Bharati Kadam, spokesperson from iDream said that if the policy

makers are successful in working out profit margins for developers,

several will jump into the fray to tap this section of the society.

Developers today do stake claim of constructing affordable homes by

catering to flat buyers in the 30-35 lakhs bracket for an area of

1,000 sqft in tier II cities. But in the true sense, this is more of a

cost correction and as Bharati points out this is still way above

what most of the marginalised section across the country can afford.

New age construction technologies and pre-fab construction companies

and modular construction companies can make a big impact in bringing

down time and cost of construction. A substantial amount of research

is going into developing India prototypes of housing solutions, in an

effort to bring down cost of construction by upto 50% and this is a

ray of hope for the section of society which cannot afford much yet.

Successful developments come from matching design, planning, cost,

project management skills with the vision and experience in the real

estate market. And the iDream team claims that they take on projects

which are individually conceived and crafted with care from the

conviction that they influence the lives of those who use them, be it

in the affordable sector or a very high end user.

iDream Advisory Services Pvt Ltd is an architectural and interior

designing firm with a strong commitment to building sustainable built

environments. The firm has delivered green solutions to organisations

across all corners of India.

For more details log on to:

http://www.idream.in.

by: Sibani Chakravarty

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