The government, private developers and analysts all agree that there is a shortage of housing in the country. However, the exact extent of this shortage is ambiguous, with different agencies quoting different figures and most of these figures being mere projections, which lack any solid statistical foundation.

“To deal with the problem of housing shortages, it is important to know the exact extent of the shortage,” a Planning Commission official said. With this in mind, close to Rs 8 crore has been allocated in the Budget to build a national housing database.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is working on this database. The database will be compiled using two methods.

First, the data will be sourced from the National Building Organisation, which collects and collates housing and building construction data. Second, it will be sourced from a committee whose members are National Housing Bank chairman S Sridhar, Housing and Urban Development Corporation members and representatives of public and private sector banks like Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC and National Cooperative Housing Federation.