ABSTRACT
The government has granted infrastructure status to affordable housing to enable the projects to obtain associated benefits like lower borrowing rates, tax concessions and an increased flow of foreign and private capital. Considering the fall in demand for high-volume housing loans, there is a need to promote low-cost housing finance to economically weaker section- and low-income group-category customers. Affordable housing may be defined as the economic potential of individuals to afford housing. Besides huge inventories of unsold housing units, sluggish growth in outstanding housing loans is another major factor in the declining launches of housing projects in India. Since the rate of inflation is often found to be equal to the interest rate in developed nations, no one would ever consider inflation as a factor affecting the economic potential of customers to pay housing expenses. Affordable housing finance may not just increase sales of housing units but also encourage builders to launch housing projects.
