Date:31/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/31/stories/2007083162061000.htm

Andhra Pradesh

‘Shortfall of 31 million houses’

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: S. Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director of National Housing Bank (NHB), said there was a shortfall of 31 million houses in the country.

The requirement would go up to 74 million units by the end of the Eleventh Plan, he said at a meeting organised by the Public Enterprises Department here on Thursday. Mr. Sridhar said housing finance in the country constituted only 15 per cent of the total volume of business by banking sector. The finance was mostly cornered by high income groups. The lower income groups were neglected, so much so that rural housing got only 10 per cent of the total housing finance. The focus of NHB would be creation of market financing system for lower income groups.