'Kolkata is one of the most affordable cities in country'

Kolkata: Kolkata is now one of the most affordable cities in the country with home buyers in the city needing to spend about 27 per cent of the family income on home loan stated a study.

From 45 per cent in 2010, the home purchase affordability index improved to 31per cent in 2019.

With the advent of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the affordability index further improved to 30 per cent in 2020 and again to 25 per cent in 2021.

In 2022, the affordability index of the city currently stands at 27 per cent, a study by Knight Frank has showed.

Ahmedabad is the most affordable housing market amongst the top eight cities with a ratio of 22 per cent followed by Pune and Chennai at 26 per cent each in the first half of the calendar year 2022.

Knight Frank's proprietary Affordability Index, which tracks the EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) to income ratio for an average household has witnessed steady improvement from 2010 to 2021 across the eight leading cities of India especially during the pandemic when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut REPO rates to decadal lows.

However, with two consecutive REPO rate hikes, the cumulative 90 bps rate hikes by RBI has decreased home purchase affordability on an average by 2 per cent across markets and increased EMI load by 6.97 per cent.