LAND
for
Affordable
Housing
Prof.Dr.P.S.N.Rao
Professor of Housing
School of Planning and Architecture ( SPA )
New Delhi, INDIA
Costs Involved in Housing
Cost of Land
Cost of
Finance
Cost of
Infrastructure
Cost of
Housing Units
Other costs
Cost Apportionment in
Housing
Making Housing Affordable
While there are many cost components, any
attempt at making housing affordable needs to
tackle ALL of the components.
 Land being the major cost component,
reductions in land costs make a big dent in
the ultimate pricing of housing.
 In an attempt to make housing affordable,
fringe locations with low land costs are
taken up for development. Invariably these
outlying projects are not well connected by
public transportation and take a long time
to take off.
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System of Housing Supply
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Housing Projects by Government Agencies - state
housing boards, development authorities,
statutory housing corporations, etc.
Housing Projects as part of National / State
Government Programmes – BSUP, RAY,
Indiramma, Manyawar Kanshiram AawasYojana,
etc.
Town Planning Schemes
Housing Projects by Cooperative Societies
Housing Projects by Real Estate Developers
Illegal Land Subdivisions
Squatting on Various Types
of Lands
Method of Land Procurement in
Various Housing Supply Systems
Housing Supply
System
System of Land
Procurement
Costs
Housing Projects by
Government Agencies
-Land Acquisition
-PPP
-As per LAA 1894 and State
Policy
-Market Rate
Housing Projects as part of
National / State
Programmes
-Land Acquisition
-PPP
-As per LAA 1894 and State
Policy
-Market Rate
Town Planning Schemes
-Private Lands are Readjusted
-Small portions are acquired as
per LAA 1894 and State Policy
Housing Projects by
Cooperative Societies
-Allotment by Govt. Agencies
-Market Purchase
-As per LAA 1894 and State
Policy
-Market Rate
Housing Projects by Real
Estate Developers
-Allotment by Govt. Agencies
-Market Purchase
-As per LAA 1894 and State
Policy
-Market Rate
Illegal Land Subdivisions
-Market Purchase
-Market Rate
Squatting
-Land Grab
-Nil
Key Methods of Sourcing Land

Land Acquisition under LAA 1894

Pooling and Readjustment
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Market Purchase
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PPP and Other Methods
LAA 1894
Land can be acquired only for ‘public
purpose’
 Compensation to be paid as per ‘market
value’
 Provision for appeal and enhanced
compensation
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Conflict of Interests
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Government ( political ) perspective
Developer perspective
Farmer / land owner perspective
Financier’s perspective
Environmentalist perspective
City Planner’s perspective
Poor and Houseless
also have a perspective
The Dilemma

Government has been acquiring large
parcels of land and giving to private
companies ( SEZs, private industries, etc.)
on the one hand while government
housing agencies are citing many reasons
for not acquiring lands for housing and
instead encouraging private real estate
developers – this obviously hurts the
farmers when they see developers make
huge profits.
While the government / government
agencies acquire raw land at low rates from
the farmers, they auction the developed land
at high rates to the real estate developers.
 This boosts up land prices as a whole and
adds substantially to the housing costs.
 Land acquisition often ends in protracted
ligitation leading to delays.
 The process is highly susceptible to political
manipulation and consequent fallouts.
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Governments have
been acting much like private profit
making entities !!
How can one
expect
affordable housing
for the masses ?
Land at the Centre of
Litigation
According to a media report :
“………….as many as 40 districts in
17 states in India have now been
caught in land acquisition glitches.
An estimated 3.69 lakh acres is
involved”
Farmer Agitations
Upjaoo Bhoomi Sanrakshan Andolan
 Karnataka Rajya Raithu Sangha
 Bharatiya Kisan Sangh
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RAY
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Under the Government of India sponsored Rajiv Awas
Yojana ( RAY ), the government desires to grant
property ownership rights to slum dwellers – in
the case of Jaipur, it has been observed that most of the
slums are on lands which are untenable or which belong
to the Forest Department – obviously, the policy is
easier said than implemented.
No Financing for Land
Housing Finance Institutions in India are
averse to funding land procurement.
 HUDCO used to have a scheme for the
same but in the recent past, few cases are
processed under this.
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Poor Utilisation of Land
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Most cities have poor utilisation of lands
for residential developments, often
characterised by :
a) low densities
b) low FAR / FSI
c) height restriction
d) restrictive zoning
We need to completely change the present
paradigm so that high intensity land
utilisation occurs.
Some Innovations
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12 ½ percent scheme in Navi Mumbai
Reasonable compensation on slab system, plots,
annuity and stamp duty exemption in Haryana
Land assembly by pooling by VUDA in
Visakhapatnam
Innovations in Rajasthan
Reservations in housing
projects in various states
Farmer Driven Real Estate
Development in Pune
Land Banking
The Land Imperative for
Affordable Housing
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Need for appropriate land laws for
acquisition for housing
Land Records,Titling and Guarantee
System
Modernisation of Offices of Registrars of
Land / Property Registration
Appropriate Valuation Regime
Full Land Mapping with Ownership Details
Appropriate Land Taxation
High Intensity Land Utilisation
Low Transaction Costs ( Stamp Duty )
Financing Land Procurement
eMAIL :
drpsnrao@hotmail.com
Thank you.