Housing in India varies greatly and reflects the socio-economic mix of its vast population.
Housing varies from palaces of erstwhile maharajas in Rajasthan to swanky apartment buildings in big cities to tiny huts in far-flung villages. There is tremendous opportunity for growth in India's housing sector as incomes rise.
There are certain unique characteristics of Indian culture which drives its housing set-up. The most common structure is for the extended family (usually referred to as joint family) to live in the same house. For instance grandparents, their sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren live in the same household sharing the same kitchen. Brothers, sisters and cousins grow up together. Each husband-wife combination has their own bedroom. The eldest woman in the house sets the menu and leads the cooking. Women live with their in-laws after marriage.
With modernisation there is a small but growing section of nuclear families in urban areas. It is still extremely rare for senior citizens to live alone. Conservative Indian society frowns upon young couples living together before marriage. Some single young adults live in same-sex dormitories during college or in shared accommodation during the early working years.
The life-style in villages takes advantage of the warm weather. Families bathe outdoors (while fully clothed) in rivers and ponds. Most of the day is spent outdoors around or near the house. Cooking is conducted outdoors in earthen stoves powered by organic fuels or in modern kerosene stoves. Water is obtained from hand-drawn wells. Men perform their ablutions in designated spots throughout the day; women hold nature's call until after dark and again use designated outdoor spots usually behind bushes. Visitors to villages observe residents squatting down for an afternoon card game under trees or while sitting on charpoi's (traditional hand-made beds) brought outside during the day. Consequently they use their indoor space primarily for sleeping, changing or, in electrified homes, for watching TV.
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According to the Times of India, "a majority of Indians have per capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs.""[1] The average is 103 sq ft per person in rural areas and 117 sq ft per person in urban areas.[1]
44 percent of rural households have access to electricity.[2] Although cities have better facilities than villages, except for the major metros no city in India provides full-day water supply.[3]
A 2007 study by the Asian Development Bank showed that in 20 cities the average duration of supply was only 4.3 hours per day. The longest duration of supply was 12 hours per day in Chandigarh, and the lowest was 0.3 hours per day in Rajkot.[4] Some 400 million Indians do not have access to a proper toilet[5] and the situation is even worse in slums across Indian cities.[6][7]
The national and state governments are running programs, some funded by the World Bank, to improve conditions. Bharat Nirman is targeting clean water, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission is building public toilets and sewage systems. The private sector, including companies such as Tata, have started to enter the low-income reidential projects.
Mumbai experiences similar urbanisation challenges as other fast growing cities in developing countries: wide disparities in housing between the affluent, middle-income and low-income segments of the population.
Highly desirable neighbourhoods such as Colaba, Malabar Hill, Marine Drive, Bandra and Juhu house professionals, industrialists, Bollywood movie stars and expatriates. Swanky apartments have 3 or more bedrooms, ocean views, tasteful interior decoration, parking for luxury cars and sleeping quarters for maids and cooks. Around 20 to 25 per cent of people in Mumbai live in these high-rises.[8] In 2007, Mumbai condominiums were the priciest in the developing world at around $9,000 to $10,200 per square metre.[9] Also Mumbai has most tallest towers and more than 1500 high rise[10][11] building already constructed and many more are under construction.
Despite the ongoing economic boom there is still poverty, unemployment and poor housing conditions for a section of the population. With available space at a premium, working-class Mumbai residents often reside in cramped, relatively expensive housing, usually far from workplaces. Despite this Mumbai's economic boom continues to attract migrants in search of opportunities from across the country. The number of migrants to Mumbai from outside Maharashtra during the 1991-2001 decade was 1.12 million, which amounted to 54.8% of the net addition to the population of Mumbai.[12]
A large number of people in Mumbai live in informal housing or slums. They cover only 6-8% of the city's land even though 42% of the population lives in them.[13][14][15][16] Slum growth rate in Mumbai is greater than the general urban growth rate.[17] Financial Times writes that "Dharavi is the grand panjandrum of the Mumbai slums".[18] Dharavi, Asia's second largest slum is located in central Mumbai and houses over 1 million people.[19] Slums are a growing tourist attraction in Mumbai.[18][20][21]
Most of the remaining live in chawls and footpaths. Chawls are quintessentially Mumbai phenomenon of multi-storied tenements typically a bit higher quality than slums. 80 per cent of chawls have only one room.[22] Pavement dwellers refers to Mumbai dwellings built on the footpaths/pavements of city streets.[23]
With rising incomes, most residents of slums and chawls now have modern amenities such as mobile phones, access to electricity and television.
Rent control laws have helped to create the housing shortage.[9]
Delhi has witnessed rapid suburban growth over the past decade. South Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida have added thousands of apartment buildings, houses, shopping malls and highways. New Delhi's famous Lutyens bungalows house the prime minister, members of his cabinet, top political and government leaders, military officials, senior judges and top bureaucrats. New Delhi is also home to thousands of diplomatic staff of foreign countries and the United Nations. With India's growth, Delhi has developed as a business centre for outsourcing, consulting, high-tech, research, education and health care services. Employees of these institutions are the source of growing demand for high-end world-class housing provided by major builders such as DLF.
Roughly 18.7% of Delhi's population lives in slums, according to 2001 government statistics.[24]
Bangalore's mild year-round weather prompted its emergence as a favourite retirement location in the 1950s and 1960s. The quiet town witnessed leafy streets lined with bungalows. The only lively areas were the restaurants which lined Mahatma Gandhi Road. Retirees went on leisurely walks in the gardens around the British-era Army cantonment earning Bangalore the sobriquet "Garden City". A few accomplished academics and researchers worked at the famous Indian Institute of Science and ISRO.
All this changed in the 1990s when the Information Technology boom hit Bangalore. Y2K projects in America's IT industry resulted in shortages for skilled computer scientists and systems programmers. Bangalore was transformed into the Silicon Valley of India as over 500,000 well-paying jobs for young college graduates were created. The demographics of the city changed, new high-rise apartment buildings were built, campus-style office parks sprouted, vast shopping malls started to thrive, streets became crowded with new cars and world-class gated expatriate housing estates emerged.
Roughly 3% of Bangalore's population lives in slums[24]
Kolkata's most sought-after neighbourhoods are around Park Street, Camac Street, Lower Circular Road, Sarat Bose Road, Salt Lake, Ballygunge, Anwar Shah Road, Chowringhee and Golf Green. A recent building boom has converted sprawling British Raj era bungalows into high-rise apartment buildings with modern amenities. Kolkata, currently has the second most number of highrises and tall buildings in the country after Mumbai the highest of them being at 50 floors(under construction). New suburbs are coming up in Rajarhat and along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. Once complete these apartments and penthouses will offer unmatched luxury and comfort, keeping in mind the need of NRI's, expats and the elite class.Avani is also a major builder.The tallest buildings in the city,The South City Towers,are also condominiums.
North Calcutta contains mansions built in the early 20th century during Calcutta's heyday as capital of British India, which covered all of South Asia plus Burma and Aden. These buildings include a court-yard surrounded by balconies, large rooms with tall ceilings, marble floors, tall pillars and crumbling artwork. Most of them are poorly maintained. The Marble Palace and other buildings received "heritage status" which provides them municipal funds and incentives to repair and restore. These mansions serve as reminder of the era of Bengali Renaissance when Tagore's music and dance graced the living rooms of wealthy Bengali merchants.
Hyderabad housing in modern ages in the years 2010 has become more modern than the other ages .the beautiful landscapes,sites,include excellent housing facilities.houses in hyderabad have become excellent infrastructure for gated communities,villas, hyper cities
In general India's crime rates trails those of other developing countries. There is a large developed housing market with major builders and promoters. Some municipal and other government officials, elected politicians, real estate developers and a few law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways.[25] Sometimes, government land or land ostensibly acquired for some legitimate government purpose is then handed over to real estate developers who build commercial and residential properties and sell them in the open market, with the connivance of a small section of the administrative and police officials.[26] In one set of allegations in Karnataka, a lake was filled in and government buildings torn down after illegal transfers to a developer by mafia-connected officials.[27] Eminent domain laws, intended to procure private land at relatively low prices for public benefit or redistribution to poorer people under social justice programs, are abused to pressure existing landholders to sell land to a government entity, which transfers the land to developers at those low prices, and who in turn sell it back on the market at much higher prices.[28][29]
Corruption is sometimes a reaction to well-meaning social activists' opposition to development. Environmentalists, "not in my backyard" activists and court cases slow down the ability to expand housing. Computerization of records relating to the classification of tracts and land ownership is a key tool in countering the illegal activities of land mafias, since it creates transparency on all information relating to a given parcel of land. This approach has been effective in Bangalore,[30] but efforts to extend it elsewhere have sometimes met with strong resistance by land mafias, manifesting itself as bureaucratic inaction.[31]