Provide unsold, ready, affordable housing stock for purchase: Report

To give a directional plan to the Maharashtra government to solve the problems of overcrowding, inadequate housing, slum rehabilitation and high-density in cities, Mumbai-based NGO, Praja Foundation, on Tuesday, released a working paper on ‘The Need for Adequate Housing for All - Recovery and Development in Maharashtra’s Cities Post Covid-19’. The paper looks at resolving the issues related to the housing via four key strategies.

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The strategies include government-led rehousing in existing unsold ready stock to reduce slum density, relocation of labour-intensive businesses to reduce slum density, new adequate housing on government-owned land through community land reserves (CLR) and new adequate housing in peripheral areas around the city starting with improved connectivity through a strengthened public transport network.

Milind Mhaske, director at Praja said, “In the short term, to tackle the issue of density in big slum clusters, the government can provide existing unsold and ready affordable housing stock for purchase and lease in the metropolitan region at construction cost to beneficiaries in lieu of their current dwelling (but with a larger area) and compensate developers accordingly.”

The paper states that of the total unsold units in Mumbai, Pune and Thane, 34% are affordable housing. It further states, “If the unsold affordable units in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) are offered to households in Dharavi; around 18% of the population can be relocated.”

It also states that since 70% of the population in Dharavi is employed within the slum, “shifting of businesses along with better working and living conditions offered to workers will de-densify the existing area.”

The paper emphasises on using untapped land in the metropolitan region and the eastern waterfront of Mumbai to create more affordable housing. It states that even if 10% of the land under the eastern waterfront is used for affordable housing, 11,000-12,000 units can be added in the city.

It talks about the formation of CLR, which will act as a non-profit organisation that undertakes construction/redevelopment of the property. “In case of sale or management of lease, the flat is returned to the CLR which further sells/leases it to those beneficiaries who are currently living in inadequate housing such as slums. This ensures that the property is continued to be used for affordable housing,” said Shirish Patel, a noted urban planner.

At 31,700 people per sq km, Mumbai is the second-most populous city in the world after Bangladesh’s Dhaka, as per the UN-Habitat. As per the slum population census of 2011, the density increases to 86,306 people per sq km. The paper further calculates the median annual income of a household to be around ₹4.74 lakhs but the cost of an affordable house to be almost four times the median annual income at an estimated ₹18.99 lakhs, emphasising on the need to prioritize housing.