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Low Income Group (LIG) and Middle Income Group (MIG) categories including the slum
dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban households by the year 2022.
l Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (AHRCs) for urban migrants/ poor as a sub-scheme
under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY–U). Existing vacant government funded
housing complexes will be converted in ARHCs through Concession Agreements for 25 years.
Concessionaire will make the complexes livable by repair/retrofit and maintenance of rooms
and filling up infrastructure gaps like water, sewer/ septage, sanitation, road etc. States/UTs will
select concessionaire through transparent bidding. Complexes will revert to urban local bodies
after 25 years to restart next cycle like the earlier one or run on their own. In addition, special
incentives like use permission, 50 per cent additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR)/Floor Space Index
(FSI), concessional loan at priority sector lending rate, tax reliefs at par with affordable housing
etc. will be offered to private/ public entities to develop ARHCs on their own available vacant
land for 25 years.
Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group

l The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (annual Income between Rs 6
- 18 lakhs) being implemented since January 2017, was extended up to March 2021 to benefit
2.5 lakhs middle income families with targeted investment of over Rs 70,000 crore in housing
sector under the Atma Nirbhar Programme announced in May 2020. This was also expected to
stimulate demand for steel, cement, transport and other construction materials.

5.35 It can be broadly observed from Figure 21 A and 21 B that the response of housing
transactions to COVID-19 shock is much higher than the response of housing prices. This
implies that shocks to housing sector adjust more through changes in transactions than prices. As
price response remains relatively lower than the response of transactions therefore transactions
are better indicator to gauge sentiments in the housing market. While house transactions mostly
declined during the COVID-19 shocks, their prices did not fall in most of the selected cities,
some even increased.

5.36 Further, decline in housing transactions have also been much less during second
COVID-19 wave than the decline during first COVID-19 wave. Figure 21 A compares the
change in transactions in first COVID-19 wave and during the second-COVID-19 wave from
the pre-pandemic levels (April-June, 2019). During first COVID-19 wave housing transactions
declined in almost all selected cities. However, during second wave of COVID-19, the housing
transactions in many cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Noida, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru
increased relative to the pre-pandemic levels. In cities such as Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad,
Chennai, Ranchi, Delhi & Kolkata the housing transactions declined during second COVID-19
wave over the pre-pandemic levels. However, this decline has been much less than the decline
during the first COVID-19 wave.

5.37 Unlike the decline in quarterly housing transactions during first and second COVID-19
waves, the impact of the COVID-19 shock on the prices of residential properties was not uniform
across the cities. Figure 21B compares the change in price index during the first COVID-19
wave and during the second-COVID-19 wave over the pre-pandemic level. During the first
COVID-19 wave, the housing prices increased in cities such as Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad,