Twenty years of nothing

Research Seminar

Urban India faces a severe housing shortage. Cities are short of 21.87 million houses.

This Seminar examined the issue of housing inadequacy in India and the Government policies in place that to help the situation and would they be able to make a dent in next twenty years. A team of six members wholesomely contributed at each step of the research and presentation.

SEMINAR

POLICY RESEARCH

SPA DELHI

Year /

2017

My contribution to the teamwork

Streamlining the initial vague set of ideas about housing inadequacy towards government policies and examine the solution at it’s root based on huge amount of reading and browsing through data.
Continuous research, Ideation and hunting for relevant material while talking to various people working in the respective field.
Targeted interviews with practicing Architects and experts and revised precise questions in each interview to report the scenario within the industry at grassroots level.
Chrarcterisation and playfulness of the game that was incepted to make the topic lighter and lucid.

What is the Research Outline?

AVAILABILITY

AFFORDABILITY

ADEQUACY

Currently, a BPL household needs to pay 266% of its monthly income in order to be adequately housed.

This disparity persists in EWS, LIG and MIG households. HIG households, on the other hand, need pay only 8% of their monthly income on E.M.I while their affordability benchmark is set at 40%.

In the 71 years of Indian governance this shortage has only risen, and steeply. What brought us here?

What are the economic, political, social and geographic conditions that have brought us to this crisis?
This examination of past policies lays the groundwork to understanding three key policies executed in the past two years which will have notable effect on the current state of housing.

The first and most touted is the Housing For All initiative by the current government, which aims to dissolve all housing shortages by 2022. The policy withdraws government involvement in actual construction, but instead provides subsidies, and governance. A notable move is the promotion of housing improvements by tenants by issuing loans at subsidised interest rates. Initiatives that assure security of tenure and infrastructure incentivise auto-constructed housing improvements. But with no measurable enforcements to ensure the adherence to bylaws and building quality and standards, will auto-construction make a dent in housing inadequacy?

A second trend is the Affordable Housing subsidies offered to developers who manage to construct units that are sell below a specified price point. The price point specified by the government necessitates the construction of these houses in Peri-urban areas, since land prices in urban areas are prohibitive.

Who will buy these houses?
Are we looking at the beginnings of ghost towns? Or will the increase in housing stock result in the market correcting itself even in the urban areas.

A third policy critical to the discussion is The Real Estate Act, 2016.
The Act introduces long overdue policies that regulate land ownership and sale. It proposes to establish a Real Estate Regulatory Agency that will hold tribunals for the arbitration of contested land ownership.

Is there a path to a future where all Indian citizens are adequately housed? And more importantly, are we on it?

Process Gamification

OOf that research is heavy stuff, isn’t it?
We thought so too!
To present our findings and help students develop an insight into the future of housing inadequacy, we developed a game. Let’s check it out..

Let's meet our clients, make policies for each of them..

Hi, I'm Appu

I work as a maid and live in Taimoor nagar, behind the nala. I’ve been wanting to improve my house or buy a new house since a long time.

Hi, I'm Bob the builder

Between 2003 and 2013, the market was great.
One fine day when the market crashed, I had no buyers and a ton of unfinished projects and a horde of angry owners.

Hi, I'm Shravan

I work as a rickshaw puller. They showed me pictures of a tall building over my slum where I could get a flat.
But where I would keep my cycle rickshaw and Renu didi tells me lifts are very expensive to maintain.

What's the Goal?

Gain enough points to help Shravan reach the house!

Let's play!

Pick out Policies from the deck to make Shravan/Appu/Bob's life easier

FLIP the tile on the game board to see the consequences of your policy choice.
They’re not always what you expect!

Learnt a lot?
Leave us some feedback!

“A very engaging but frustrating way to understand policies that are otherwise too dull and boring.”
-Annam, student, S.P.A.

“What a super fun experience! Brilliant!!!!!!.”
-Aakash, student, S.P.A

“Well researched! Great game! So impressed with the entire exhibit.”
-Rajiv Bhakat, faculty, S.P.A.

Projects