“By earlier definition, a large segment of supply was not covered,” said Pankaj Kapoor, founder of real estate researcher Liases Foras. “By increasing the carpet area, a lot of available supply has been encapsulated. It would help get rid of the glut.”

Inventory piled up after demonetisation squeezed out the cash component of real estate transactions—that could go up to 40 percent of an apartment’s cost. The Real Estate Regulation Act added to the funds crunch—it holds developers liable for promises and bars them transferring money from one project to another.

While sales are yet to revive in the top eight cities, demand for affordable homes is growing. Total units sold till August 31 this year are estimated at 319,000, said a report by property consultant Cushman and Wakefield and real estate data analytics provider Propstack. One and two-bedroom homes contributed 87 percent of this.

Most of such homes are coming up in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, said Manju Yagnik, vice-chairperson at Mumbai-based developer Nahar Group. The government’s scheme is aimed at such buyers.

Beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana are split into two middle-income group categories:

• MIG-I: Those with an annual income between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 12 lakh get an interest subsidy of 4 percent on a 20-year loan of Rs 9 lakh.
• MIG-II: Buyers with annual income of Rs 12-18 lakh get an interest subsidy of 3 percent for a loan of Rs 12 lakh.

Going by Income Tax Department’s assessment data, the pool of such buyers comprises 71 lakh individuals—earning Rs 5.5-20 lakh in the year 2014-15.

....

Half the inventory of developers registered under RERA was unsold as of August 31 in Mumbai, according to the Cushman & Wakefield-Propstack report.

Rajesh Krishnan, founder and CEO of advisory Brick Eagle Group said to strengthen the case of affordable housing, the supply side should be boosted. “The subsidy should be targeted at the low-income group and more should be done to boost the supply in that bracket.”