Rental Housing More Inclusive Than Ownership, Says Naidu

Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that rental housing offered huge opportunity and voiced his opinion in favour of promoting the rental housing stock in the country beyond the current 11 per cent.

Speaking at the National Consultation on Draft National Rental Housing Policy, 2015, Naidu said: “It is more inclusive than ownership housing which has been the focus of housing interventions by the governments.”

“Rental housing offers huge investment opportunity at the bottom of the pyramid, given the rising demand for alternative housing option to ownership housing on account of mounting migration,” he said.

Rent control laws, low rental yields, poor maintenance, poor quality of construction, fear of losing control and emphasis on ownership housing were adversely impacting investments in and availability of rental housing in the country, the minister added.

Naidu said that the draft rental policy envisaged to enable a vibrant and formal rental housing sector by adopting regulatory and legal reforms, enhancing fund flows, promoting institutions for constructing, managing, maintenance and creation of rental housing stock, along with necessary incentives.

Rental housing in India accounts for 11 per cent of total housing stock, while it is 35 per cent in the Netherlands, 31 per cent in Hong Kong, 23 per cent in Austria and 20 per cent in UK.

He pointed out that while there is a housing shortage of about 190 lakh units in urban areas of the country, about 110 lakh houses are lying vacant.