Mon Sep 09 15:17:24 UTC 2024: ## Housing Affordability Crisis Grips Indian Cities, Leaving Migrants Struggling
**New Delhi:** The rapid growth of India’s urban population, particularly in its five megacities, is creating a severe housing affordability crisis, leaving many migrants struggling to find a decent place to live.
According to a recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey, housing affordability has worsened across 13 major cities, with the house price-to-income (HPTI) ratio increasing from 56.1 in 2015 to 61.5 in 2019. This means that it now takes 61.5 times the median monthly income to afford the median house price, far exceeding the UN-Habitat benchmark of 36.
Mumbai remains the least affordable city, with an HPTI of 74.4, while Bhubaneswar stands as the most affordable at 54.4.
A separate RBI study in 2018 analyzed affordability across 49 cities and found that only 5 cities were affordable for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Lower Income Group (LIG) households. Even Middle Income Group (MIG) households could only afford housing in 9 of the 49 cities, highlighting the widespread unaffordability issue.
The crisis stems from a significant mismatch between the rising demand for housing and the stagnant supply of affordable housing options. This has led to a surge in informal housing and slums across Indian cities.
Professor Steffen Wetzstein, a political economist, has termed this a “Global Urban Housing Affordability Crisis,” demanding urgent government interventions.
Experts emphasize the need to address this problem by reconsidering land use regulations and urban planning systems, placing housing affordability at the center of urban development strategies. This will be crucial in ensuring that migrants can access decent housing without sacrificing other essential needs.
First Piper 