The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has sanctioned more than 1.68 lakh houses in the urban areas under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. This takes the total number of authorised houses to 1.1 crore as of January 2021.
Under the PMAY-U scheme, 41 lakh houses have been built so far and 70 lakh houses are in various construction stages, as reported by the Ministry.
What are the goals of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana?
Introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, the Pradhan Mantri Awas looks to offer affordable housing by 2022. It targets the construction of 1.12 crore houses in the urban areas over seven years, i.e. from 2015 to 2022 under the PMAY-U.
A Government initiative for affordable housing, PMAY scheme aims to:
- Rehabilitate (in-situ and ex-situ) slum dwellers in partnership with private developers.
- Provide a credit-linked subsidy to the weaker section of society to promote affordable housing.
- Providing affordable housing for all in collaboration with the public and private sectors.
- Subsidy for individuals for construction of their house.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will also benefit individuals belonging to the transgender community, senior citizens, widows, women applicants, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the differently-abled. Under this PMAY credit-linked subsidy component, beneficiaries can avail of a 6.5% interest subsidy on a home loan for a tenor of 30 years.
What are the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana eligibility criteria?
To avail of the benefits of PMAY, applicants must be eligible for this social welfare scheme, and therefore the PMAY eligibility criteria are mentioned below:
- The PMAY scheme primarily includes, low-income groups (LIGs) with an annual income ranging from Rs.3 lakh to Rs.6 lakh, middle-income groups (MIGs) with an annual income between Rs.6 lakh to Rs.18 lakh, and the economically weaker section (EWS) with a yearly income of up to Rs.3 lakh.
- Beneficiaries from the EWS section will get assistance in all four verticals of the scheme, while beneficiaries of MIG and LIG will get home loan assistance only in the credit-linked subsidy component.
- The applicant or any family members must not own a ‘pucca’ house in any part of the country.
- Ground floor facilities provided to senior citizens and differently-abled.
- In case of a married beneficiary, spouses together in joint ownership or either of them can avail a single subsidy.
For both the PMAY Urban and PMAY Rural schemes, the application process remains the same. Applicants, who wish to check their name in the PMAY list, will have to visit the PMAY official website, enter their registration number, Aadhaar card number and check for their name.
Along with these features and criterions mentioned above, some top HFCs provide pre-approved offers to ensure a simple and straightforward application process. Such offers are available on several financial products such as home loans, loan against property etc. One can check his/her pre-approved offer by submitting their name and contact details.
PMAY scheme is a great initiative introduced by the Indian government to fulfil the dream of owning a home by every individual. This has encouraged a large portion of individuals to approach the HFC’s to simplify their EMI loans. With lowering home loan rates and declining property prices, PMAY has allowed individuals to capitalise on their desires to own property.
