In view of the large migration of population from rural areas to cities, the government today said it will soon unveil a policy to promote rental housing as a viable housing option.

Despite a housing shortage of approximately 19 million units, around 11.09 million houses are vacant in urban areas as per 2011 census data, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said at the regional workshop on Rental Housing Policy and National Housing and Habitat Policy here.

He said that while exact reasons for the vacant properties are hard to ascertain, it is felt that low rental yield, concerns regarding repossession, lack of incentives are the possible reasons. At present, there is a housing shortage of approximately 19 million units in the country.

“If these vacant houses are made available for rental housing, then some, if not most of the urban housing shortage, could be addressed. We are trying to introduce a formal rental housing programme which may absorb the 11.09 million completed houses lying vacant,” Naidu said.

Around 56 per cent of this shortage is among households from the economically weaker section (EWS) with an average annual household income of upto Rs 1 lakh, while approximately 40 per cent is among households in the lower income group (LIG) with an average annual household income of Rs 1-2 lakh.

So nearly 96 per cent of this housing shortage, therefore, lies among the EWS and LIG categories of urban India, he said, adding, “A primary reason for this supply-demand mismatch is the paucity of formal housing options for India’s large low income population with low affordability levels.”

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