“Govt must use surplus land for affordable housing”: Real Estate Research expert at IIMB

Dr. Venkatesh Panchapagesan, Chairperson, Real Estate Research Initiative (RERI) and faculty in the Finance & Accounting area at IIM Bangalore, spoke on ‘Inequality in the Housing Market’, in the eighth lecture in the series, ‘Inequality Conversations’, hosted by the Centre for Public Policy at IIMB, here this evening.

Dr. Arpit Shah, faculty, Centre for Public Policy, introduced the speaker, set the context for the lecture, and moderated the discussion.

Using two powerful images – one of the demolition of the twin towers in Noida and the other of flooding in Bangalore where uber expensive villas and slum dwellings are under water, to talk about the challenges of urban housing, Prof. Panchapaesan began his talk by giving a background on why housing matters to individuals and the economy, and the legal structure related to housing in India. He highlighted the economic dimension of inequality in housing and reiterated that his focus for the talk would be urban housing.  Listing the benefits of housing, including improvement in health and education outcomes and increase in productivity of individuals, improvement in access to livelihoods and access to credit, and provision of social security.