AFFORDABLE HOUSING – A DISTANT DREAM & BEYOND THE REACH OF COMMON MAN

AFFORDABLE HOUSING – STILL A DISTANT DREAM

Lower and middle cannot afford to buy a house in a city like Mumbai and other metro cities in India. Even  a small town.  Govt. and media always try to blame the poor citizen encroachment and mushrooming slum across the metros.  Why this happening.  It is because of wrong policies of the govt. Today the entire democracy is hijacked by Real estate and corporate mafias.  In the bull run economy, the manipulative  real estate prices doubled with a span of 2 years. High rice of property price means large section of people cannot afford to buy a house or own a property in India.  One side there is a big corporate take over in the name of privatization and liberalization and globalization and on the other side, large section of the people getting landless, houseless, and jobless with displacement and replacement.  If the poor and middle class own a house or property, they have to pay high property taxes and other taxes just to fill the empty coffers of the govt. Can anybody say that this is a sustainable development business when the large section of people especially the poor and lower middle class getting out of the process.

Real estate mafias getting various concessions from the govt. If a poor man buy a small house, now it is a dream.  The entire real estate business became an elite segment of the society.  Even a middle class family cannot afford to buy a house due to high inflation in the real estate market.  The other problem is high cost of transaction.  India’s transaction cost is higher than in any other country.  Lakhs of houses just locked due to faulty rent act of the govt. Small house owners enjoy no benefit and on one pretext or the other, the govt. is rising property taxes and other taxes and owning a house become much difficult for majority of the section of people. 

When we become democracy and independent (in-dependent) govt. and corporations/trusts own anything and everything.  At the same time, right to a piece of land and the ownership is taken away from poor and marginal section of the society.  Elite paying less taxes, while poor paying higher taxes on property.  If you look at the property tax on trusts and other big  Corporates are an example. Now a new trend is emerging.  The land occupied by big factory/mill owners which they got at concessional/ even nil rate disposing for real estate purpose.  When there is a govt./ corporate or other take over of the land, the locals and others  get an assurance that it creates employment for replaced/ displaced or compensation.  When a factory disposed off for the real estate business purpose/ other commercial/ residential activities, the poor and middle class has no role to play.  The entire business is done between the existing factory holders and govt. and real estate mafias, with political and bureaucratic support. 

Nobody ready to talk for the poor lower strata of the poor.  Govt. have no such provision for low cost housing for poor.  Poor and lower middle class pushed out of the corner and give some place to undeveloped area.  The peoples mistake seems to be they created better market and access to better amenities through years long struggle and govt. provided it on a piece meal basis. In the name of development builders lobby take the developing right by just extending a small cake of the benefit and more than 80% of the benefit taken away by builder-political-bureaucratic nexus.  In return the poor have to again pay high property taxes and rates, in the days of high inflation and instable jobs.  The poor have no alternative but to sell it to the market and again his search for low cost house continues.