event
Carnegie India

How Do Zoning Regulations Affect Housing Affordability in India?

Wed. March 20th, 2024
5th Floor, Conference Room, Carnegie India

Affordable housing and its availability are crucial policy questions for the sustained and orderly growth of Indian cities. Deregulation of strict housing regulations has been proposed as one measure that can increase housing affordability. Several Indian cities are slowly relaxing building restrictions, allowing for taller buildings that may occupy more land than was permissible earlier. However, there is a dearth of work that studies the effect these relaxations have on affordability.

Drawing on granular data from Mumbai, Sahil Gandhi and Geetika Nagpal’s recent paper—Scaling Heights: Affordability Implications of Zoning Deregulation in India, investigates whether relaxing zoning regulation leads to reduced prices and a substantial increase in housing units. The authors provide an empirical analysis of how land-use regulations affect the housing market in the city, offering critical insights for policy formulation and implementation.

Carnegie India organized a Political Economy Seminar—How Do Zoning Regulations Affect Housing Affordability in India? Sahil Gandhi presented the findings from the paper, following which,discussant Jagan Shah, CEO, The Infravision Foundation gave comments. The seminar concluded with an open discussion.

EconomySouth AsiaIndia
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Sahil Gandhi

Sahil Gandhi is a lecturer at The University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education, and Development. His research focuses on urban economics, real estate, and housing. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His recent papers are on the political economy of real estate, vacant housing and housing supply. His research is published in the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Cities, among others.

Jagan Shah

Jagan Shah, CEO of The Infravision Foundation, and former director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs, is a senior expert in urban development policy and practice. Over the years, he has led the design and implementation of numerous urban innovation initiatives, including co-conceiving the Smart Cities Mission, guiding the formulation of the Master Plan for Delhi 2041, and developing policies for land value capture, land pooling, and transit-oriented development.