housing

A recent news report talked about the custodian of an apartment complex in Kundalahalli making a “one month rent free’ offer” to attract prospective tenants. In a city where home-owners demand deposits at least three times higher than in other Metros, the Kundalahalli offer -- even if sceptics see it as a marketing gimmick -- is a big climb-down for house owners. The advertisement is, in fact, reflective of Bengaluru's current market slump in home rentals. Realtors and home owners are unable to find tenants, owing to a reverse migration of the working population to their home towns, cities and…

Even when the howling wind and torrential rain brought by Cyclone Amphan was causing havoc around her on May 20, Sabita Sardar was not afraid. “We are used to dealing with bad weather. I wasn’t feeling scared. In fact, those who live in concrete homes were more scared,” she said. For 40 years now, Sabita has been living on the streets of Gariahat, a popular market area in south Kolkata. That day, when the super cyclonic storm passed through West Bengal’s capital city, Sabita and a few other homeless women sat huddled together in her tricycle cart under the Gariahat…

Given the global pandemic of the coronavirus/COVID-19, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has called upon the central and state governments to implement special measures to prevent and check against the spread of this virus among homeless and inadequately-housed people, who face increased vulnerability, on account of their poor living conditions and already high morbidity. India has at least 4 million people living in homelessness in urban areas and over 70 million people living in ‘informal settlements’ without access to essential services. The homeless population and those who live in settlements without adequate housing are particularly vulnerable to contracting and…

This article is part of our special series on Delhi Elections 2020 Unlike other recent state elections, much of the discussion in the Delhi assembly poll campaign has centred around the successful delivery of  civic amenities and public fund utilisation. This campaign tone was set by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose claims have been in sharp contrast to the  BJP’s political agenda. In the run up to polls, both the ruling AAP and the BJP were seen firing on all cylinders, with the Congress proving to be a lazy bystander. But despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s carpet bombing with the…

Huge unsold housing inventory across 35 cities in the country is one of the key reasons for the Great Indian Economic slowdown, according to former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam. In a working paper titled "India's great slowdown- What happened? What's the way out?", Arvind Subramaniam estimates that this vacant real estate inventory has locked up funds worth Rs 13 lakh crores, resulting in huge unpaid loans to banks. "While developers could in principle tempt buyers by reducing prices, they couldn't do that in practice because lower prices would have destroyed the (notional) value of the collateral that they pledged…

The BJP-led Union Cabinet recently gave a nod to the Kejriwal government’s proposal to give ownership rights to those living in 1,797 unauthorised colonies in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. A bill to legislate the move is likely to be introduced in the current winter session of Parliament.  Elections for the Legislative Assembly of NCT Delhi are due in January 2020. Ever since the cabinet nod to the regularisation came about, BJP has been making extra effort to engage with these communities and portraying itself at the forefront of  the decision. When we contacted them for this report, its…

On a scalding hot afternoon, a petite, dainty woman stands at a small shop in R A Puram, counting the change she has to return to her customers. Her bangles clink as she swiftly wraps some eggs and then hands it over to the customer along with the change. With her saree pallu tied at her hip, she toils to the sound made by the jangling of her armlets. “I had sold bangles like these to buy this shop. They were made of gold. It has been 10 years now, but I don’t regret it,” says Ponnarasi, recalling times past.…

On June 18, 2019, the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) sent a team of personnel and machinery to reclaim a 5-acre plot along the Dadri-Surajpur-Chalera (DSC) road in Sector 48 (Map 1 below). The plot, a part of the Barola village agricultural land, was acquired for developing NOIDA in 1976. The Authority claims that most landowners took compensation for the loss of their land. Since the official master plan of the city (NOIDA Master Plan 2031) shows the plot as a ‘green belt’, the marble market that sprouted there in early 2000s, alongside some old and new pucca residences,…

The balcony in Cultured, a cafe in Humayunpur, Delhi, gives a good vantage point of the daily happenings in the streets -- women walking the streets in their chic winter coats, men in trendy hairstyles going to office in their formal attire and people coming out to buy their daily groceries. On the same street one can see the local men of the village sitting in front of their houses with a hookah and a bonfire. Most of the young tenants in this urban village in Delhi are from the North Eastern states. As I sat in the cafe with…

Far from Myanmar, their homeland, here they feel safe, but these 85 Rohingyas are not at home in the refugee camp in Kelambakkam. Dingy rooms that barely have ventilation, narrow stairways, cluttered spaces and untidy surroundings -- the camp located on the outskirts of Chennai paints a sorry picture. The deplorable living conditions probably don't bother the Rohingya Muslims as much as they should, for they are happy to be alive. But does it give them a decent quality of life? No. Space is the biggest constraint, a factor that is driving many refugees away from the camps. Each room is…