BHUBANESWAR: Capital city Bhubaneswar is the most affordable city in the country in terms of housing, revealed a survey carried out by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
As per the survey, the house price to income ratio (HPTI) of Bhubaneswar stands at 54.3 compared to 74.4 in Mumbai, 58.6 in Chennai, 58.5 in Delhi, 56.1 in Bengaluru, 60.3 in Hyderabad, 56.5 in Kolkata, 58.6 in Lucknow, 66.6 in Pune, 70.4 in Ahmedabad and 56.2 in Bhopal.
HPTI, the basic affordability measure for housing in a given area, is generally the ratio of a median house price to familial disposable income.
The quarterly residential asset price monitoring survey (RAPMS) conducted by the RBI also stated that housing affordability in the country has worsened in the last four years.
“Housing affordability has worsened over the last four years as the HPTI increased from 56.1 in March, 2015 to 61.5 in March, 2019. Mumbai remains the least affordable city in India while Bhubaneswar remains the most affordable city,” said the survey. RBI carried out the survey in 13 tier I and II cities in the country.
The report also said movement of the median loan to income (LTI) ratio in these cities also confirms worsening housing affordability as it increased from 3.0 in March, 2015 to 3.4 in March, 2019.
Though the LTI in Bhubaneswar has remained below the average, it has increased from 2.5 in March, 2015 to 2.8 in March, 2019.
Reacting to the survey report, Association for Odisha Real Estate Developers (AFORD) president Nishith Ranjan Nanda said the HPTI ratio is gradually widening as income of people is not increasing proportionately to the value of housing property.
Besides, support from the centre and state is must for private developers for affordable housing in cities, he said. “Every housing or real estate firm will want to sell its project at a cost lesser than the others.
However, they can’t do so on their own when they have to compete with others to purchase land the price of which exceeds the cost of construction,” said Nanda.
He urged the Centre and the State to launch new schemes for development of affordable housing projects through private players.
Nanda also said the tax and charges imposed on housing and real estate projects needs to be reduced to offer affordable housing to people in cities.