NEW DELHI: The Economic Survey has highlighted the large number of vacant houses in cities, but the government’s rental housing policy is still awaiting the Cabinet’s nod. Mumbai tops the list of vacant houses, with about 4.8 lakh units. Delhi and Bangalore are not far behind with 3 lakh vacant houses each.
Early last year, the Union Ministry of Housing had prepared a draft policy to promote rental housing. Officials said it was a key supplement to the government’s flagship ‘Housing for All’ scheme, the main target being to meet the needs of the growing number of migrants to urban areas.
The draft policy aims at increasing the supply of housing stock, putting in place enabling provisions to encourage property owners to rent out houses. At present, people hesitate to rent out properties because of archaic rent control laws.
Officials said the draft policy also proposes to repeal or amend rent control laws to protect the interests of both tenants and property owners. It has been seen that tenants often pay only a few hundreds or thousands of rupees for prime residential and commercial properties in big cities because of archaic laws.
The policy also proposes to allow migrants to rent houses from government bodies for a certain number of years, and subsequently buy them by paying instalments.
A senior official said the policy was likely to address the issue of vacant houses highlighted by the Economic Survey, which also suggested a more holistic approach was required that takes into account rentals and vacancy rates.
