India's demography presents us with great opportunity to build a sustainable and equitable economic growth. While India is the third largest global economy, our housing infrastructure, however, has not kept pace with the rising growth.
Large scale migration during COVID-19 crisis brought into sharp focus the poor living condition of millions of migrant labourers across India.
Recognizing the urgent need to provide better living conditions for our people in India, Rental Housing Association of India (RHAI) has submitted a detailed recommendation to the Ministry of Housing to create a sustainable ecosystem and improve the living conditions of people in India.
To this effect, a white paper was released in a webinar conducted by Guesture-Primus Partners and Invest India. Among the many suggestions made by the association to the Central and State Government, giving 'Infrastructure' status to rental housing industry was one of the key recommendations.
RHAI has also recommended creating a viable ecosystem that encourages building of rental housing for employees or for socially vulnerable section of the society under CSR and formulation of Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (RREIT).
In a detailed recommendation to each of the stakeholders including, Central, State, Corporates and Educational institutes, the body has suggested the setting up of Social Rental Housing, Need Based Rental Housing and Market Based Rental Housing schemes catering to diverse sections of the society.
This also includes an online portal for all rental housing properties, facilitating mandatory online registration and providing incentives to corporates, industries, businesses and educational institutes that facilitates quality housing to their migrant workforce /employees and students, respectively.
"Government's vision of development of vibrant rental housing market in India, especially catering to poor sections of society, needs combined efforts by various stakeholders including Central & State Government, Private Sector and Local communities. It is important to establish an encouraging policy & regulatory environment conducive for investments in rental housing by private players," said Sriram Chitturi, Founding President of RHAI and Founder of Guesture, a co-living start-up, while talking about the RHAI's recommendations.
"Policy interventions in land acquisition, approval processes and taxation are much needed to expedite development of rental housing, which will act as a catalyst by creating a multiplier effect on job creation. We have submitted the recommendations to the Ministry of Housing and are also in the process of submitting our recommendations to other stakeholders in the Industry," Sriram Chitturi added.
The percentage of households living in rental has witnessed a sharp increase, from 10.5 per cent in 2001 to 11.1 per cent in 2011. Out of the 7.1 million households living in rented houses in India between 2001 and 2011, almost 90 per cent of the increase was contributed by the urban factor. In spite of the burgeoning growth and demand for rental housing, majority of the hired houses have no written contracts implying widely prevalent unorgzed nature of the residential rental housing industry in India.
In view of the challenges plaguing the ecosystem, it is important that policies that appropriately support the rental housing sector, participation of private players and more aware citizenry becomes important and necessary. RHAI's recommendations are in this direction.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
STATE GOVERNMENT
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT - MINISTRY OF FINANCE
MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS
Website - www.guesture.in
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( With inputs from ANI )
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