Economy · Sub-pillar 4.8
Housing and cost of living
Access to decent, affordable homes and the everyday cost of living.
What is housing and cost of living?
Housing and cost of living is sub-pillar 4.8 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the eighth of nine sub-pillars under the Economy pillar. It asks whether families can afford a decent home with basic services, and whether the everyday cost of food, fuel, rent, schooling and healthcare leaves room to live well.
Why it matters for 2047
A home is the first thing a family builds its life around, and in India it is also the largest expense most families will ever face. Whether a decent, permanent house with water, a toilet and electricity is within reach of an ordinary income is as clear a test of development as any.
The cost of living is the other side of the income coin. A wage that rises slower than rent, school fees and hospital bills leaves a family poorer even as the economy grows. 47 BH measures what things cost against what people earn, not prices alone.
Cities make the question sharper. The places with the most jobs have the most expensive land, so the workers a city depends on are often the ones who cannot afford to live in it, and end up in slums, informal rentals or long commutes from its edges.
Where India stands
- 2.95 crore
rural houses had been completed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) by February 2026, of 3.87 crore sanctioned, with a target of 4.95 crore by March 2029, according to the Ministry of Rural Development.[1]
- 96.65 lakh
urban houses had been completed under PMAY-Urban and its second phase by January 2026, with 94.2 lakh occupied; PMAY-U 2.0 aims for another one crore over five years.[2]
- 1.87 crore
was the official estimate of the urban housing shortage based on the 2011 Census; a NITI Aayog committee in 2025 put the shortfall across metro, urban and semi-urban areas at 5 to 7 crore.[2]
- ~47%
of a rural household's monthly spending went on food in 2023-24 (about 40% in cities), with average spending per person of Rs 4,122 in villages and Rs 6,996 in urban areas, according to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey.[3]
On building, the scale is unprecedented: close to three crore rural houses and nearly a crore urban ones completed under the national housing programmes, which has changed the face of villages across the country. [1][2] Food's share of household budgets has fallen below half even in villages, a classic sign of rising living standards, while spending on transport, health, education and durable goods grows. [3]
On affordability, the gap in cities is wide and growing: the official shortage figure is fifteen years old and the newest official estimate is three to four times larger. [2] Land accounts for up to 63% of housing cost in metros, more than a quarter of urban Indians rent, mostly informally, and the 2011 Census counted one urban resident in six in a slum. [2][4]
A note on the numbers: house completion counts are programme data and say nothing about location or quality; the housing shortage estimates use different definitions; the consumption survey measures spending, not prices, so a falling food share can reflect cheaper food, higher incomes or both. India has no regular official measure of housing cost as a share of income, which 47 BH would like to see.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Share of households in a pucca house with water, toilet and electricity (NFHS; Census).
- Share of the urban population living in slums, and the estimated housing shortage (Census; Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs).
- Housing cost and food as shares of household spending (Household Consumption Expenditure Survey).
Two lenses on housing and cost of living
City and village
47 BH asks whether a construction worker can afford to live in the city he is building, and whether a family in a village gets a pucca house with water and a toilet rather than four walls alone. Rural housing has been a story of mass construction; urban housing is a story of land prices and informality.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from cities that kept housing affordable through dense, transit-linked building, rental housing at scale and land made available rather than hoarded, and from countries that track housing cost against income every year?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as building affordable housing far from jobs, counting houses sanctioned as families housed, or letting the cost of schooling and healthcare rise untracked while headline inflation looks tame?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the self-built housing that most Indians still live in and improve over time, the joint households that share costs, and the community kitchens, hostels and rentals that let workers live near their work?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Planning of cities and services in villages: Economy: Cities, towns and villages
- Inflation as a matter of monetary and fiscal policy: Governance: Public finances and stable prices
- Wages and the quality of jobs: Economy: Incomes and quality jobs
- Health costs that push families into hardship: Health: Access and affordability
- Clean drinking water and sanitation as health outcomes: Health: Prevention and public health
Questions about housing and cost of living
How many houses has India built under PMAY?
2.95 crore rural houses were completed under PMAY-Gramin by 2 February 2026, of 3.87 crore sanctioned, according to a Rajya Sabha reply; 96.65 lakh urban houses were completed under PMAY-Urban by 5 January 2026, according to PRS citing the PMAY-U portal. [1][2]
What is India's housing shortage?
The Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage estimated 1.87 crore urban houses based on the 2011 Census; a NITI Aayog committee in 2025 estimated 5 to 7 crore across metro, urban and semi-urban areas. [2]
How much of their income do Indians spend on food?
About 47% of monthly spending in rural households and about 40% in urban households in 2023-24, according to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, which reports non-food shares of 53% and 60%. [3]
How many urban Indians live in slums or rent?
17.4% of the urban population lived in slums and 27% in rented accommodation at the 2011 Census, most of it informal, according to PRS Legislative Research's analysis. [2][4]
Why does 47 BH track housing cost against income?
Because a house is affordable only relative to what a family earns. India has no regular official measure of housing cost as a share of income, and 47 BH treats building one as part of the work ahead.
Sources
- Ministry of Rural Development, Rajya Sabha written reply on PMAY-Gramin, 6 February 2026, as reported by News on AIR, 7 February 2026. https://www.newsonair.gov.in/government-sanctions-over-3-crore-87-lakh-houses-to-states-uts-under-pmay-g/
- PRS Legislative Research, "Demand for Grants 2026-27 Analysis: Housing and Urban Affairs", February 2026. https://prsindia.org/files/budget/budget_parliament/2026/DfG_Analysis_2026-27-Housing.pdf
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24", press note, 27 December 2024. https://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/HCES_Press_Note_2023-24_27122024_rev.pdf
- Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Census of India 2011, Primary Census Abstract for Slums, 2013. https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/census-tables
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.