‘NITI Aayog’s approach paper ready to turn affordable housing into reality’

NEW DELHI: A detailed approach paper from NITI Aayog has given a roadmap that is ready to turn affordable housing into reality. In December 2025, a report titled “A Comprehensive Framework to Promote Affordable Housing” was issued by the think tank, which has now been circulated among all the stakeholders, the government said on Monday.

Meanwhile, since June 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has implemented the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Urban (PMAY-U), focusing on providing strong and all-weather homes, i.e., pucca houses, with essential civic amenities to urban citizens who are eligible. With the success and experiences gained from PMAY-U, the government announced PMAY-U 2.0, i.e., the Housing For All mission, which began on September 1, 2024, with “one crore urban citizens” being added as beneficiaries within the next five years.

PMAY-U 2.0 has been launched through four mechanisms: Beneficiary Led Construction, Affordable Housing in Partnership, Affordable Rental Housing, and the Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS), which is a Central Sector Scheme. The main aim of the ISS is to increase institutional credit flows to the affordable housing sector through the provision of interest subsidy on home loans provided to the Economically Weaker Sections of the Population, Lower Income Groups, and Middle Income Groups.

Under ISS, the recipients can avail an interest subsidy amount of up to Rs 1.80 lakh distributed across five instalments for long-term loans. For those possessing an annual income level of up to Rs 9 lakh, a loan value of up to Rs 25 lakh, and a property value of up to Rs 35 lakh, there exists a 4 per cent subsidy on the loan value of up to Rs 8 lakh with a loan duration of 12 years. Till now, an amount of Rs 312.38 crore has been disbursed in home loan subsidies to 70,638 recipients.

To increase the affordability base further, changes to GST rates on construction materials and services were made by the government in September 2025. As part of making credit available to EWS and LIG segments, the Credit Risk Guarantee Fund Trust for Low-Income Housing was revamped and launched in January 2025. Loans to the tune of Rs 614.76 crore are guaranteed by this scheme as of January 31, 2026. The details were shared by Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Tokhan Sahu, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.