The role of HUDCO in speeding up real estate developments in Cochin

The major breakthrough in the implementation of social housing schemes has come with the establishment of the City Improvement Trusts, Housing Boards, City and Industrial Corporations, Development Authorities, and other organizations for undertaking land acquisition, development and construction of houses for various income groups.  Real Estate in Cochin saw major developments as a result of this path-breaking approach.
 
The major initiative undertaken by the government in this direction for the promotion of housing for the poor and the economically weaker sections was the setting up of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) in 1971.  It operates on a graded system of interest rates ranging from five to 13.5 percent and repayment periods ranging from 13 to 22 years. 
 
In earlier times, HUDCO financed houses ranging whose building cost varied from Rs.10, 000 to 2.50 lakh.  The interest rates varied according to the annual income of the various income groups.  These rules have undergone drastic changes and the lower income groups who avail such loans can avail it at even zero interest rates.  It is claimed by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) that over 55 percent of its funds are earmarked for economically weaker sections and low income group population, leading to the generation of as many as 90 percent of tenements to these groups, out of the 1.5 million dwelling units constructed by the borrowing agencies. 
 
The HUDCO of late, is shifting its emphasis from constructing the formal houses to a multi-pronged approach of “site and services”, and package of schemes for urban poor, which ranges from a minimum levels of “surveyed plot” to intermediate levels of “serviced sites”, and to an upper level of “core housing”, with utilities and access to community based services, depending on the ability and willingness of beneficiaries to avail them.