Housing in South Asia

Housing carries immense significance worldwide as it fulfils a fundamental social requirement. Historically regarded as a basic human right alongside food and clothing, it not only provides shelter but also serves as the foundation of community life, the centre of familial activities, a marker of social status, and, for the impoverished, their most valuable financial asset. Of the essential social needs—food, clothing, and shelter—access to adequate housing often eludes the world’s poorest. While many in poverty manage to secure food and clothing, hundreds of millions still remain homeless or live in inadequate conditions across the globe.

In South Asia, where nearly one-fourth of the world’s population resides, the challenge of adequate housing remains pressing. Despite economic growth, poverty continues to affect large sections of society, leaving millions without safe or affordable homes. Housing shortages have only grown more acute over the years, with solutions still elusive. In India, the urban affordable housing deficit has reached approximately 9.4 million units in 2025 and is projected to increase to 30–31 million units by 2030.

Addressing this housing shortage is not just a developmental priority—it is a pathway to social equity, economic resilience, and sustainable urbanization. Solutions must balance affordability, inclusiveness, and innovation to ensure that every family has access to a safe and dignified home.

The World Bank Housing Initiative in South Asia

In May 2008, the World Bank launched a landmark regional dialogue to confront the acute housing and housing finance challenges in South Asia. This high-level engagement brought together policymakers and financial leaders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, marking the beginning of a coordinated regional response. The deliberations culminated in the World Bank’s report, “Expanding Housing Finance to the Underserved in South Asia,” which revealed stark realities—an unmet housing demand exceeding 38 million units, affecting nearly 212 million people or about 14% of the region’s population. The study identified persistent barriers such as weak land administration, limited access to affordable mortgage products for low-income families, and the proliferation of urban slums that constrained both social and economic development.

To address these findings, the South Asia Housing Finance Forum (SAHF) was established as a permanent platform for policy dialogue, knowledge exchange, and innovation with a Chair and an Advisory Board comprising central banks and housing sector leaders from across the region, SAHF was anchored by a Secretariat at the National Housing Bank in New Delhi. Its activities combined an online knowledge portal with physical conferences, enabling sustained interaction among stakeholders. The Forum’s objectives were - to foster reforms, guide the development of financial products tailored to underserved households, promote private sector engagement, and share best practices from both successful and struggling markets.

By positioning itself as a hub for research, innovation, and cross-border collaboration, SAHF signalled a new era of regional cooperation. It sought to unlock scalable, country-specific solutions to South Asia’s housing crisis, ensuring that affordable housing became central not only to social equity but also to the region’s broader agenda of financial inclusion and sustainable urban development.

UNESCAP and UN-HABITAT Pro-Poor Housing Initiative

In 2008, UNESCAP and UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with India’s National Housing Bank (NHB), launched the Pro-Poor Housing Finance Project across seven Asia-Pacific countries. The initiative identified strategies to expand affordable housing finance for low-income households. Key recommendations included establishing an Affordable Housing Fund, channelling credit through community savings groups, strengthening loan recovery frameworks, and creating specialized housing finance institutions.

The project also emphasized credit risk mitigation tools such as mortgage insurance, alternative collateral mechanisms, consumer education, mortgage counselling, and support for low-cost construction technologies. It highlighted the importance of product innovation in housing finance, provision of affordable serviced land, and the expansion of housing microfinance. To ensure sustainability, the report advocated long-term housing finance mechanisms, including securitization, particularly for institutions serving low-income segments. Finally, it called for the creation of a regional knowledge-sharing forum to promote collaboration and innovation in pro-poor housing finance across Asia-Pacific.

Formation of the Asia Pacific Union for Housing Finance (APUHF)

In January 2010, at the South Asia Housing Finance Forum (SAHF) meeting in New Delhi, it was agreed to merge SAHF with the UNESCAP/UN-HABITAT/NHB Pro-Poor Housing Finance initiative into a single regional platform. This integration aimed to create a sustainable network for knowledge sharing, policy dialogue, and institutional collaboration on affordable housing and housing finance across Asia-Pacific. A follow-up meeting in Bangkok on March 25, 2010 reviewed the first draft of a Concept Note outlining the network’s institutional and operational framework. The proposal was further deliberated at the Regional Symposium on Pro-Poor Housing Finance in New Delhi on April 19–20, 2010, where participants discussed the vision, mission, objectives, activities, membership, governance structure, and financial modalities of the new platform. To refine these elements, members were organized into Working Groups, with the aim of finalizing the framework ahead of the network’s informal launch during the October 2010 meeting of the International Union for Housing Finance (IUHF). This process culminated in the establishment of the Asia Pacific Union for Housing Finance (APUHF) as a regional hub for innovation and collaboration in housing finance.

Timeline of APUHF Developments

Key Functions and Activities of APUHF

• Facilitates policy dialogue and capacity building through conferences, workshops, and partnerships, including collaboration with ADFIAP.
• Promotes inclusive housing finance solutions via targeted research, public-private collaboration, and shared learning throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
• Operates as a regional hub for knowledge exchange and networking since 2010, providing an online platform to share ideas, case studies, policy designs, and best practices in housing finance; its Board includes central banks, ministries, and development finance institutions.
• Leads pro-poor housing finance initiatives by organizing workshops and regional dialogues to tackle low-income housing issues across Asia-Pacific.
• Builds public-private partnerships to enhance delivery, regulation, and financing mechanisms through collaborative events and training sessions.
• Publishes reports and proceedings, including post-workshop and conference materials from Ulaanbaatar and Delhi, made available on APUHF’s website.
• Under the UN ESCAP partnership, NHB released a compendium of best practices on pro-poor housing.
• Published a regional update in the IUHF Journal (Spring 2012), where Zaigham M. Rizvi announced APUHF’s establishment and detailed its programs.