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Introduction

Housing is the most vital and basic necessity of human being. Housing allows social security and safety to the households, resulting in better quality of life and welfare of the society. The term housing brings out physical as well as social structures in which an interconnected system of relationship can be observed. According to Census of India, there are various housing characteristics to understand the housing situations. They can be classified as:

Housing condition is a primary housing characteristic which determines the quality of houses based on good, dilapidated and livable conditions.
Housing tenure status is the ownership of housing which reflects on economic composition and dependency. The tenure status is sub-categorized into owned, rented and any other types.
Housing structure can be studied through permanent, semi-permanent and temporary structures based on the types of materials used for wall, roof and floors.

Housing Typologies

The typologies associated with housing can be divided as formal housing and informal housing. In case of formal housing there are private, public, rental and cooperative types of housing.

Private housing – Private housing is an individual effort giving preferences for personalized needs.
Public housing – Usually, a public housing is a government initiative which offers shelter for all through various housing programs and projects.
Rental housing – A type of housing where housing access is provided to the people who are not able to afford housed of their own.
Co-operative housing - Co-operative housing aims at developing housing through various co –operatives for funding needs.

Informal housing can be descried as unhealthy settlements that are created due to lack of economic instability. They are usually located on the peri- urban areas or at the inner most areas of the city. Informal housing lacks basic amenities and utilities provided for a living. Some of the examples included in informal housing are notified and non-notified slums, squatters, pavement dwellers and other illegal dwellers.

The differences in formal and informal housing are determined through housing stocks and housing analysis of gap assessments. Housing shortages are households living in factors such as obsolescence, congestion and homelessness conditions.

Concepts and principles of neighborhood

The term neighborhood can be defined as an area where a group of people live together, with respect to the size of the group results in the creation of villages, towns or cities. A neighborhood unit is described as a planned unit where people live in larger area with all basic facilities available at a walkable distance.

According to Clarence A. Perry a New York planner, neighborhood concept is an arrangement of 5000 – 9000 people supporting an elementary school of student population of 1000 - 1200. The total area for a neighborhood would be 160 acre with a population density of 10 houses per acre. And the shape of the area is in such a way that the school students need not move more than one - quarter mile to reach the school. There would be a 10% of area allotted for recreational purposes. And the area would also be implemented with shopping centers, community spaces and religious areas.

Clarence A. Perry’s Neighborhood Unit of 1929

Source: Neighborhood Unit and its Conceptualization in the Contemporary Urban Context

There are six basic principles of neighborhood unit concept. They are:

Arterial streets are placed along the boundaries of the neighborhood, not through the residential area of the neighborhood.
The internal streets should be designed according to the use cul-de-sac (dead ends) for avoiding high traffic and providing peaceful environment.
The total population of the neighborhood should be in a way supporting the requirement of elementary school.
The elementary should be located at the center of the neighborhood unit.
The radius of neighborhood should be maximum one quarter mile, thus limiting the movement of school student to that distance.
Shopping centers are provided at the edges of the neighborhood and preferably at the cross section of the major streets.

Residential Densities

The basic measurement for determining physical characteristics of the area is known as density. Densities differ based on the number of units such as population, dwelling units, in the given area. Residential density is based on three elements units to be measurement, area for the unit measurement, land which can be excluded / included in the given area. Among these the land factor is the most important factor which causes the greater variations in the residential density.

Residential density helps us to understand the intensity of the development of an area. There are two important types of residential densities; one is the Net Residential Density which is the dwelling unit count upon area with residential use and Gross Residential Density can be referred as dwelling unit upon residential area including other land use areas. Apart from providing physical characteristics, residential densities associate economic and social characteristics.

Affordable housing

Affordable housing is housing that are reasonable for the lower income groups. It aims to meet the housing needs of various income categories such as lower, middle and economically weaker sections of society without compromising on the quality of housing. President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) Satish Magar defined affordable housing as “units with a carpet area as defined under RERA that do not exceed sixty square meters in the metros and 90 square meters elsewhere''.

People live in unauthorized spaces not by choice but circumstance which makes it affordable to them. In India, affordability plans are implemented through government policies, schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), NTR Housing and Rajiv Awas Yojana and public – private partnership to result in better standard of living and creating social inclusions.

Affordable housing is estimated through housing shortage, which can be calculated through three factors such as obsolescence factor, congestion factor and homelessness. Accessing these factors determines the existing housing shortages and thereby providing affordable housing demand.

Real estate valuation

Real estate is defined as the land along with any kind of structures which can be organic or man built. There are six main types of real estate such as agricultural real estate, residential real estate, commercial real estate, industrial real estate, mixed use and special purpose like public and semi-public uses.

There exist physical as well as economic characteristics for real estate. Physical characteristics include durability, heterogeneity and stability factors. While economic characteristics marked as a source of income involves market value, investment strategies and area of choice. Understanding these characteristics develops standardized dealings of real estate.

The real estate valuation is a process of determining the actual value of the land or building for use or as an investment through various standards. There are various factors taken into consideration while performing real estate valuation such as land value in market, proximity of infrastructures, material used and availability of amenities and utilities.