Mainstreaming Innovative Financing Mechanism for Sustainable and Affordable Housing- Lessons from Indian Experience

In line with the global trend, India is at a crucial stage in its urban transition, with projected population to reach 600 million by 2030 from the present level of around 450 million today. To address the growing urbanization, the demand for sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing is one of the key focus areas for sustainable habitat development in India. It is clear that for providing sustainable, adequate and affordable housing, availability of long-tenor and cheaper formal sector housing finance for the informal sector & poor households as well as Private Sector developers at affordable terms is one of the key challenges facing the housing market in India today. In particular, the flow of funds to affordable segments remain low and heavily skewed in favour of big-ticket individual housing loans. Considering the scale of investment required in housing space and to address various finance-related challenges, the traditional approach for financing through grants and loans from government or government-owned financial institutions will not be able to cover the demand for urban housing finance. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly imperative to explore innovative financing approaches and models including green financing options as well as to re-engineer the existing financing sources for enhancing the flow of funds to the sustainable and affordable housing market. It is in this context that the Networking event of All India Housing Development Association (AIHDA) at WUF13 tends to focus on financial instruments and mechanism used in India’s Urban Transformative Missions such as ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-Urban) for mainstreaming financial innovations into Practices for providing Sustainable, Inclusive & affordable housing in India. The AIHDA event would bring together the innovations applied among Indian cities and municipalities and elsewhere in the domain of housing and housing-related infrastructure including specific case studies for possible replication in other cities across the globe. Key Objectives: 1. Showcase India’s approaches for leveraging resources from various sources for affordable housing finance. 2. Emerging Financial Innovations for Affordable Housing Sector- Case studies and and best practices. 3. Explore innovative ways and means for making land and finance available for housing at affordable rates. 4. Public Private Partnerships for affordable housing finance. 5. Exchange of ideas and networking for partnerships.