Affordable Housing - The New Buzzword

With home prices in the large cities showing signs of softness and affordability of houses being cited as a key barrier to increased offtake, affordable housing seems to be the new buzzword for developers (Wonder if this is an acknowledgement that the current crops of houses are not affordable!).

Business Standard has an article on this trend and mentions a host of private equity firms that have committed capital for this space. Firms mentioned include Red Fort Capital, Warburg Pincus and Fire Capital. While the article does not have any great insights into how this segment of the industry is evolving, one datapoint cited makes me wonder if anybody in the editing room is doing a sanity check on what is written.

Recognising the potential growth in affordable housing segment, Delhi-based Omaxe Ltd has formed a company, National Affordable Housing Infrastructure Ltd, which will invest Rs 80,000 crore to develop 100,000 affordable homes across the country.

Sure hope this is a typo and the journalist meant Rs 8,000 crores. After all, Rs. 80 lakh per house is not my idea of affordable housing!!