NEW DELHI: Over 40% of Delhi's population lives in houses that are 20 to 40 years old. Almost three lakh houses in the city are 40 to 80 years old and some 11,000 are more than 80 years old. While most properties are old, there are only 55,000 new houses—constructions that are less than five years old in the city. The figures indicate that the city is facing space crunch and there have been fewer fresh constructions. It also reflects the trend of people shifting out of the city in search of better living spaces in the rest of the NCR.

The data emerges from a report, "Housing Conditions in Delhi", prepared by the directorate of economics & statistics based on the 69th round of National Sample Survey (NSS) conducted during July 2012-December 2012.

The report states that about 61.11% of the total households in Delhi are having their own houses of which 50.44% (19.92 lakh) are freehold and 10.67% (4.21 lakh) are leasehold houses. While a mere 55,000 of the total households are living in the houses which are less than five years old, 4.23 lakh families are living in the structures that are 5-10 years old. Around 6.53 lakh households live in the houses built some 10 to 20 years ago. As many as 9.73 lakh families live in houses built between 1974 and 1994.

About 88.64% of the total households in Delhi are living in the houses, which are used strictly for the residential purposes and 11% are living in the buildings which are residential-cum-commercial.