India housing affordability shifts
India’s housing affordability is set to stabilize as household income growth is projected to outpace property price appreciation, with the EMI‑to‑income ratio expected to plateau through 2028 — that changes the playbook for buy‑and‑hold and owner‑occupier demand there. This could make entry and financing easier for developers and investors focused on residential markets. (aninews.in)
CBRE released its India Residential Market Outlook 2026 on March 18, 2026, setting the data framework behind the affordability and demand projections. (cbre.com) The report benchmarks affordability across six metros—Mumbai, Delhi‑NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune—and across three annual household income cohorts of Rs 40 lakh, Rs 75 lakh and Rs 1 crore. (business-standard.com) CBRE’s 2025 snapshot showed more than 270,000 new launches and over 270,000 sales in the year, with sales volumes down about 8% while sales value rose roughly 15%; the premium and luxury segment accounted for about 27% of sales and some 52,000 luxury units were launched in 2025. (business-standard.com) The consultancy flagged the sub‑Rs 45 lakh affordable segment as constrained by rising input costs and the withdrawal of targeted fiscal incentives, and estimated that policy recalibration—revisiting price/area ceilings and restoring incentives—could add around 60,000 affordable units a year. (business-standard.com) CBRE also documents a clear “flight‑to‑quality” as buyers shift toward larger, branded residences, and it expects institutional rental formats—student housing, co‑living, senior living and workforce accommodation—to gain traction amid fragmented inventory and compliance gaps. (cbre.com) CBRE’s commentary and the data‑driven outlook underline an emerging divergence in 2026 between sales value and sales volume, driven by higher‑ticket inventory growth even as unit volumes soften across cities. (cbre.com)
