Number of completed affordable housing units in India 2023, by state

As of November 2023, there were over 1.3 million housing units completed across the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh within the "housing for all" (HFA) program since 2014. The HFA-program is part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban scheme of the Indian government.

What is affordable housing?

The right to housing is recognized as one of the very basic human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. The basic aim is to provide shelter for every human. The next step is to establish “adequate housing”. Thereby, a few conditions must be met to differentiate basic shelter from adequate housing. One of these conditions is affordability. From a broader perspective, affordability can be measured by correlating income and housing expenses. From a narrower perspective, the costs for housing must not compromise other basic rights such as the right to food or family well-being.

Government schemes on affordability

Indian governments since independence have focused on the issue of affordable housing in the context of poverty reduction. In 2015, the government announced a “housing for all” program that aimed at providing a safe home to every Indian by 2022. The existing Indira Awas Yojana was renamed in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in the same year and split into one scheme for the urban and one for the rural population. Furthermore, the introduction of Real Estate Regulation Authorities in 2017 is meant to increase transparency on the market and strengthen the rights of buyers.