HOUSING CLASSIFICATION

Various classifications can be there:

1. Land ownership
2. Structural quality
3. Economic group
4. Tenure
5. Built quality
6. Origin/Supply
7. Special housing categories

Land ownership
Group housing - people own the individual unit but the land and infrastructure is owned at a larger
community level
Plotted housing - where the land and the building is owned by the owner.

Structural quality
1. Pucca houses
2. Semi Pucca houses
3. Kutcha houses

Economic group
1. Higher Income Group (HIG)
2. Middle Income Group (MIG)
3. Lower Income Group (LIG)
4. Economically Weaker Section (EWS)

Tenure
1. Freehold - Property is owned by a person for their lifetime and can be inherited by their next generation
2. Leasehold - Property is owned by people for a limited time (maximum up to 99 years)
3. Rental - similar to lease but for a very limited period of time (1 month to 12 months and is renewable)

Built quality
1. High rise
2. Mid rise
3. Low rise

Origin/Supply
1. Organic - housing that has not been developed by taking long term planning into consideration and hasn't
been done by any regulatory body or government. Such housing units are developed over a period of
time as per the owners interest.
• Core city house
• Traditional houses
• Urban village
• Private plotted houses (Unplanned)
2. Formal
• Private plotted housing (planned)
• Private developers housing
• Public/Government developed housing (Group Housing)
• Joint venture company or PPP (Public + Private)
• Cooperative housing (there is no private developer. Like minded people put finances
together. Land is supplied by the government.)
 • Employee's / institutional Housing

For category 1 and 2, the ownership is Formal. Which means that there has been a formal registered
transaction by which the property has changed ownership.

3. Informal (Illegal and unauthorized)

• Slums (also known as bastis, jhuggi jhopdi, Chawla, refugee colonies)
• Squatters (unauthorized settlements that come up in risk or disaster prone areas like flood
plains of a river basin, or along railway lines)
• Pavement dwellers/street dwellers (mobile, nomadic; usually at bus terminals, railway
stations or streets)
• Unauthorized Construction (land ownership may be there but the construction does not follow
the by-laws and regulations.
• Unauthorized Rental

Special Housing Categories

1. Transit Houses (made for temporarily accommodating people affected by disasters like earthquakes,
landslides)
2. Extreme weather houses (made to withstand extreme weather conditions like cyclones)
3. Old age/ senior citizen housing
4. Working men/women hostels/homes
5. Service Apartments
Housing situation in India

Housing Gap/shortage
Typical Characteristics
Issues and concerns

Housing shortage
As per the latest data around a shortage of 20million dwelling units is there.
Urban housing shortage is at 18.78 million dwelling units for LIG and EWS

Housing shortage is calculated based on 3 criteria:

1. Homeless/street dwellers
2. Obsolete /dilapidated housing/ kutcha housing
Obsolescence factor (The percentage of households living in dwelling units aged eighty years or more)
3. Congestion factor (The percentage of households in which each married couple does not have separate
room to live.)

Future need for houses

4. With increase in population, there will be additional future need for houses.

Housing Characteristics
1. Urban-Rural disparity
2. Mismatch between demand and supply
Type Shortage Supply

HIG / MIG 4% 80%

LIG / EWS 96% 15%

3. Predominantly plotted housing

4. Land Availability
5. Traditional slow construction techniques employed
6. Affordability and finances

Issues and Concerns

1. Constantly increasing shortage
2. Multiple disparities
3. Land supply and management
4. Availability of finance
5. Slow product delivery