On one hand governments is pushing towards Housing for all by 2022, on the other hand country’s realtors are facing a hard time filling millions of vacant houses. According to a joint report from Kahitan and Co. and Knight Frank India, Institutionalising The Rental Housing Market in India-2019, ‘India has nearly 11.09 million urban vacant housing units of which 10 states and Union Territories (UTs) contribute to 78% (8.64 million) of total vacancy levels’.
Maharashta is leading the charts of most vacant houses with 19%, followed by Gujarat at 11%, and Uttar Pradesh at 9%. If we dig a little deeper, Gurugram has the highest number of vacant homes in the country with 25.8%, followed by Pune at 21.70% and Mumbai at 15.20%.
25 million out of 331 million houses are vacant in the country according to the Census of 2011. Out of these 25 million houses, 95% are in good conditions and people can live in them but still they are vacant.
Promotion and Institutionalizing of the rental housing market can help in reducing the number of houses that are vacant in the country according to the report of Knight Frank. The report stated, “With the implementation of the ‘Draft Model Tenancy Act, 2019’, in the offing, the legal structure regulating landlord-tenant relationships and speedy adjudication of landlord-tenant disputes will provide for an efficient ecosystem for creation of a rental housing market in India”.
This institutionalizing and promotion of the rental housing market is a prominent business space that can be exploited as growing number of people, particularly millennials, do not want to buy a property rather prefers a rented property. The report specified ‘India’s growing millennial population and the expanding gig economy has created huge demand for shared rentals. For the millennial population, job mobility and location flexibility is the priority and home ownership is secondary’.
