Tackling housing challenge

India’s housing challenge is too big but the government is seriously tackling it with schemes such as “Housing for All” for the rural region and dedicated funding by Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd (MRHF).

“Housing is too big a challenge to say it will be resolved in India. But a very big impact will be made because the government will be extremely serious about this,” said Anuj Mehra, managing director of MRHF.

He applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the Housing for All, also called “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awas Yojna” (PMAY-G), scheme on November 20, 2016.

PMAY-G aims to provide about 3 crore new housing units countrywide. The first phase of PMAY-G is to complete one crore houses by March 2019.

Meanwhile, MHRF will continue with its financing programme for low-cost housing in villages across the country.

MRHF will strive to be the preferred partner in housing schemes in India where providing accommodation for the poor is the biggest challenge, said Mehra.

“We would like to position ourselves as the preferred partners of the government to work on housing schemes,” said Mehra, after addressing Responsible Business Forum on Sustainable Development held in Singapore November 22-24, 2016.

MRHF, founded in 2007, is working with the government and states by providing housing loans to rural folks.

It has a book size of Rs.3,800 crores in financing and 450,000 customers.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd has 87.5 per cent of MRHF with the balance held by National Housing Bank, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India. fii-news.com