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FM announces new housing scheme for middle class, 20 million houses in next 5 yrs
Sitharaman said 30 million houses have been built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-rural scheme, and an additional 20 million houses will be built over the next five years
New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a new housing scheme for the middle class to buy or build homes as part of the Interim Budget for 2024-25.
“Our government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class ‘living in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorised colonies’ to buy or build their own houses,” she said in the interim budget speech on Thursday.
Sitharaman said 30 million houses have been built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin scheme, and an additional 20 million houses will be built over the next five years.
With the focus on urban and affordable houses, the interim budget showed that the government increased the allocation for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (both rural and urban) for the year 2024-25 to Rs.80,671 crore from the budgetary estimate of Rs.79,590 crore in 2023-24.
The finance minister also announced a new rooftop solarisation scheme for one crore houses. Along with this, 300 free units of electricity per month will be given. She said there would be up to Rs.15,000-Rs.18,000 savings annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to discoms, she said.
Sitharaman also said that the expansion of metro rail and Namo Bharat trains will act as a “catalyst for urban transformation”. “The expansion of these systems will be supported in large cities focusing on transit-oriented development,” she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech last year mentioned introducing a scheme to help the middle class fulfil their aspirations of owning their own home.
It is part of the government’s ‘Housing for All’ mission, which includes the ongoing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural or Grameen schemes.
“We are coming up with a new scheme in the coming years that will benefit those families that live in cities but live in rented houses or slums, or chawls and unauthorised colonies. If they want to build their own houses, We will assist them with relief in interest rates and loans from banks that will help them save lakhs of rupees,” PM Modi had said.
On January 12, Union minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that this scheme announced by Modi was in the final stages of preparation. He had indicated that FM Sitharaman might announce the scheme in the budget.
The budgetary announcements evoked a positive response from the real estate industry. G Hari Babu, National President of the National Real Estate Development Council, said that the reiteration of a new scheme for the urban middle-class population would also boost the confidence of both the common man and the real estate sector.
“We now look forward to a clear roadmap for this scheme. The proactive steps underscore the government’s unwavering commitment to holistic development and the welfare of our people,” he said.
Boman R Irani, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India, said, “The announcement of a housing scheme to help deserving sections of the middle class to buy or build their own houses is encouraging and will aid in the growth of the housing market.”
