Cities Are Built With Homes, But Lived Through Housing
I spend a lot of my time thinking about cities. Not as master plans or policy documents, but as places where people wake up every morning and get on with their lives. Where they live decides how far they travel for work, how much of their income goes into rent, whether their children can walk safely to school, and how secure they feel when the city around them changes. In India today, housing is no longer just about real estate. It has quietly become one of our most important governance challenges.
India is urbanising faster than ever before. By the mid 2030s, more than half our population will live in cities. Yet our response to housing still leans heavily on numbers. More units announced. More land identified. More targets set. On the ground, the experience of housing is far more layered. We are building cities at speed, but we are not always building systems that help people live well within them.
One of the biggest gaps I see is between where housing is created and where livelihoods actually exist. Affordable housing projects are often pushed to the edges of cities, far from workplaces, public transport, schools, and hospitals. Technically, a house may have been delivered. Practically, families are left spending hours commuting every day or eventually abandoning these homes altogether. It is telling that many cities today have both housing shortages and a growing number of vacant units. That contradiction points to a deeper planning failure.
Housing cannot be separated from mobility. When cities plan homes without planning transport alongside them, the burden falls on those who can least afford it. In cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune, lower income workers spend a significant share of their earnings just to travel to work. This is not about individual choices. It is about how cities are designed.
Climate change has made the housing conversation even more urgent. Every year, floods, heatwaves, and water shortages expose how fragile our urban settlements are. Informal settlements suffer first, but poorly planned formal housing is increasingly vulnerable too. Construction continues in floodplains and ecologically sensitive areas, only for governments to respond later with repairs and compensation. If housing is not climate resilient, it is not truly secure.
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There are positive developments. Large scale housing missions have expanded supply, and some states have experimented with rental housing, redevelopment in existing settlements, and transit oriented growth. These are steps in the right direction. But the quality of implementation matters as much as intent. Too often, housing success is measured by the number of keys handed over, not by whether families are still living there a few years later.
Rental housing is one area that deserves far more attention. Our policy mindset still prioritises ownership, even though millions of urban residents rely on rentals. Migrant workers, young professionals, and informal sector employees rarely need permanent ownership. They need stability and protection. The pandemic revealed just how fragile the rental ecosystem is in most Indian cities. A strong rental framework could absorb migration far better than distant ownership projects ever can.
Technology has a role to play, but only if it is used with clarity. Transparent land records, clear beneficiary selection, real time project tracking, and open data dashboards can reduce delays and misuse. I have seen how good data can change decision making inside government, shifting conversations from assumptions to evidence. But technology alone cannot fix poor planning. It has to support better intent.
Ultimately, we need to rethink how we define success in housing. A project should not be considered successful simply because homes are built. It should be successful if people continue to live there, if children can attend nearby schools, if women feel safe returning home after work, and if families are not pushed into crisis by every flood or heatwave.
Cities are not just engines of growth. They are social contracts between governments and citizens. Housing is where that contract becomes visible. When it is done well, it creates dignity, stability, and opportunity. When it is done poorly, it deepens inequality and distrust.
As someone working closely with urban systems, I believe the next phase of housing in India must be more integrated, more realistic, and more humane. Housing must speak to transport, climate resilience, livelihoods, and community life in the same breath. The decisions we make in the coming decade will shape how liveable our cities are for generations. And in many ways, the future of our cities begins at home.
