LOW COST HOUSING

“Low Cost Housing refers to housing units that are affordable by that section of society whose income is below the median household income.”
Architecture provides a significant form of shelter for human life. With the vast population explosion in under-developed countries, the housing for common people is un-questionably the biggest job for us. Each dwelling built will enclose a life for a small group of people, and if we feel that we have failed in the past to provide a fit setting for these lives, then we must try to imagine them fully, in their individuality, their family groupings and their larger corporate groupings.
The affordability of housing can be created by subsidizing the cost of housing or of the users. Apart from financial measures, the actual cost of housing can also be reduced by the use of low cost materials, simple construction methods, repetition, smart designs (e.g., sharing walls) compact construction.
Measuring housing affordability-
A common measure of community-wide affordability is the number of homes that a household with a certain percentage of median income can afford. For the determination of low cost housing, a housing-to-income-ratio tool is commonly used. Based upon this, an accepted guideline for determining affordability in USA is 30% of a household’s gross income. Canada switched to a 25% rule from a 20% rule in the 1950’s. In the 1980’s, this was replaced by a 30% rule. In India, various state and local authorities use different criteria as per the socio-economic and other factors of that region. But generally it is 40% rule in India. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) considers low cost housing if one has to spend maximum 25% on it.
The most common approach to measure the affordability of housing has been to consider the percentage of income that a household spends on housing expenditures.
Thus affordability is a relative term linked to one’s income, expenditure, savings, liabilities and commitments, and primarily disposable income.