Central Government Housing Schemes: A Quick Guide on Housing Schemes

Government housing schemes: India’s population is increasing rapidly, and with that, the housing requirement is also increasing. However, given the soaring high prices of the properties, many people are still just dreaming about owning a house in the country. To keep pace with the increased housing demand, a few central government housing schemes have been introduced, keeping in mind the buyers from various society sections. The government has introduced a few housing schemes in India to help them financially with interest subsidies on home loans.

Central Government Housing Schemes In India

Let’s have a look at the central government housing schemes in India.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)­ — Central Government Housing Scheme

India’s government launched an initiative name Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to provide affordable housing for all by 2022. Ever since its launch, the initiative has been one of the most popular central government housing schemes. PMAY is a housing scheme in India introduced t provide affordable housing to Lower Income Groups (LIG) and Economically Weaker Sections, and Middle-Income Group Indian citizens. The Prime Minister housing scheme — PMAY is further divided into two components — Urban and Rural (Gramin)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana on 25th June 2015. It is an initiative to make affordable housing available for the urban population in India. The implementation period for the PMAY scheme is from the year 2015–2022; under this central government housing scheme, the government provides central assistance to implementing agencies through States/UTs and Central Nodal agencies.

This central government scheme considers different factors such as — income, land availability, finance, and various others. Apart from assisting all the States/UTs, this scheme will also provide home loan interest subsidies to first-time homebuyers in urban areas. The government will also provide an interest subsidy of 3% — 4% for a home loan amount of up to Rs 9 lakh and Rs 12 lakh under this subsidy. By far, nearly 3 lakh affordable homes have been built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

Earlier known as Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the scheme is introduced to provide affordable housing for the rural poor. Under the PMAY (Gramin), the homeless people and those living in crumbling houses can take financial help to build their pucca houses featured with the basic facilities. The aim is to build 1 crore homes by 2022.

Under the PMAY (Gramin) scheme, the government shares the cost of construction with the state in the ratio of 60:40 in plain areas and 90:10 in the northeastern and mountain regions. By far, nearly 28.8 lakh affordable houses have been built against the target of 1 crore.

Who is eligible for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana?

To be eligible to avail of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana benefits, there are certain requirements that one needs to fulfill to be considered under this particular government housing scheme in India.

1. EWS or Economically Weaker Section people whose annual income is up to Rs. 3 lakh is eligible to avail of the benefits.
2. People under the household income slab of 3–6 lakh comes under the Lower Income Group.
3. A Middle-income group person whose household income is up to Rs. 12 lakh is also eligible for the scheme. They can also avail of a 4% subsidy on a loan of up to Rs 9 lakh, and a maximum subsidy of Rs 2.35 lakh is also granted to people under this income group under a credit-linked subsidy scheme.
4. The middle-income group consists of people earning up to 18 lakh. They can also avail of a 3% subsidy on a loan amount of up to Rs. 12 lakh.

How to Apply for Central Government Housing Scheme — PMAY?

Here are the two ways to apply for PMAY:

Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)

Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) is another central government housing scheme launched by the central government to encourage a slum-free India and asks States/UTs to help bring down the illegal construction in uniformity. Under this scheme, all notified and non-notified slums were targeted and brought under a formal system and enabled them to have basic facilities such as clean water, sanitization, and electricity.

To encourage more people to avail the housing scheme benefits under the RAY scheme, the centre also supports Rs 75,000 per economically-weaker section (EWS). By now, nearly 46,000 houses have been constructed under the RAY housing scheme in India.

The main objective of the RAY — the government housing scheme in India is to improve the basic civic infrastructure and social amenities in the slums. The RAY scheme is applicable in all slums within a city, whether on lands belonging to the Central Government or its undertakings.

Conclusion

While several attempts have been made towards providing affordable housing to people through various government schemes in India, many people are still deprived of this basic right. In a country with a vast population, a chunk of people still live in slums, and providing each family a house is a huge task; however, if these central government housing schemes are implemented rightfully, then it will help in achieving the target of providing housing to the poor and eradicate homelessness.

Nupur is a digital content specialist with expertise in copywriting, social media, and content creation for different niches, and a penchant for cutting edge technologies. She’s on a mission to crack down gobbledygook and make boring real estate marketing blogs twinkle with creativity.

Originally published at https://www.realtymonks.com on March 12, 2021.