Homes Where the Jobs Are

The plan

Housing

1. Rent control abolished.
   • Parliament passes one central Tenancy Act in its first session, based on the Model Tenancy Act. Rent is fixed by written contract, deposits are capped at 2 months' rent, and a Rent Court decides any eviction within 60 days.
   • Urban tenancy rests mainly on Concurrent List entries (transfer of property, contracts, civil procedure), so under Article 254 the central Act overrides state rent-control acts.
   • If a court holds any state rent law to rest on the State List, the Chapter 28 amendment moves "landlord and tenant in urban property" to the Concurrent List.
2. Old controlled tenancies, such as Mumbai's pagdi system, move to market rent in 4 quarterly steps. When the building is redeveloped, the tenant gets a flat of the same area in exchange for surrendering the tenancy right. This is compensation for a property right, on the same rule for every such tenant.
3. Floor-space index (FSI) 5 near metro.
   • Every plot within 500 m of a metro or rapid-rail station may build up to 5 times its plot area, once the city's water utility certifies capacity for the zone.
   • There is no new fee. The extra floor space raises the plot's market value, so the Chapter 1 property tax (0.4% of market value) rises with it. That extra tax stays with the city, ahead of the Chapter 1 split with the state, and is ring-fenced for water, sewers and roads in the zone.
   • Because the tax rises only after values rise, each zone issues municipal bonds backed by the future increase, and builds pipes and roads first. Each zone publishes its infrastructure plan within 90 days of notification.
   • This increase is new money on top of the Chapter 1 property-tax estimate, so it is not counted twice.
4. 7-day permits.
   • Plans are filed online, checked by software (AutoDCR, automatic plan checking) and certified by a licensed architect and structural engineer.
   • If no objection is raised by day 7, the permit is deemed granted on day 8. 5% of permits are audited at random.
   • This is a registration, not a request for permission (No licence raj): the filed, certified plan is the permit. Buildings over 15 m and venues for more than 100 people are certified by a licensed structural and fire engineer assigned at random, and 20% of them are audited every year.
   • Building rules and FSI are state and municipal subjects, so the Centre issues a model permit-and-FSI law. States that adopt it get top-up grants from NCAP and from the Centre's 50-year interest-free capital loans to states.

City life

5. Quiet cities, on the European model.

   • The reference is the EU Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC). Every 5 years, each city of more than 1 lakh people, and the operator of every road with more than 3 million vehicles a year, every railway with more than 30,000 trains a year and every airport with more than 50,000 take-offs and landings a year, publishes a strategic noise map and an action plan, after public consultation.
   • The EU directive sets no noise limits of its own, so India's existing Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 keep their limits, and each city publishes how many people live above them. The goal follows Europe's Zero Pollution Action Plan: 30% fewer people affected by transport noise, here by year 5 against each city's first map.
   • Certified noise sensors report to a live public map, the same national dashboard that carries the air sensors (Chapter 21).

6. No bare ground: finished frontage, covered sites.

   • The frontage strip: the public land between a plot's boundary and the edge of the carriageway, up to 5 metres deep, along the plot's full width.
   • At completion: every new building, and every rebuilt one, finishes every open patch inside the plot and the whole frontage strip with paving, grass or planting to the city's published standard, with a footpath where the road has none and a drain connected to the city network. The strip stays public land. The completion certificate is issued only after geotagged photos confirm the work, on the Singapore model, where developers build the footpath, drain and verge fronting their site and hand them over.
   • During construction: exposed earth is covered or stabilised within 14 days of work stopping in any area, as America's EPA Construction General Permit requires. Barriers enclose the site, vehicle wheels are washed before leaving, and no water stands on site for more than 48 hours, on the Singapore model of fining sites that breed mosquitoes.
   • After completion: the owner, or the residents' association, keeps the strip clean, unbroken and free of standing water, as New York's Administrative Code section 7-210 makes every owner responsible for the pavement outside.
   • Existing plots: owners of existing buildings in cities of 1 lakh people or more finish their frontage strip within 1 year of notice.
   • Enforcement: a bare strip, or water standing for more than 48 hours, costs ₹100 per square metre for every month it remains (estimate, set by each city). After 30 days' notice the city does the work through a certified contractor at the published rate and adds the cost to the owner's property tax account (Chapter 1). Drone surveys and 5% random audits check compliance.

Cost and return

New homes from FSI 5 (estimate, outcome after year 1):

• Rentals unlocked (estimate): if 30% of the 1.1 crore vacant homes come onto the rental market, that is 33 lakh rentals at no cost to the state.
• Technology: AutoDCR for permits and the noise map. These are built by states and by any software firm that passes the open standard's certification test.
• Frontage strip (estimate): a typical 15-metre-wide plot with a 3-metre strip is 45 square metres, a one-time cost of a few tens of thousands of rupees at paving rates, small beside the cost of the building and paid by its owner.
• Who pays: owners and builders pay for their own buildings and certificates; each zone's pipes and roads are paid by bonds backed by its rising property tax; and states adopting the model law receive top-up grants.

Timeline

First 30 days:

• The central Tenancy Bill is tabled.
• The model permit-and-FSI law is released to states with its grant terms.

Within 1 year:

• The Tenancy Act is in force across India. Seven-day permits are live in every adopting state.
• FSI 5 zones are notified around operational metro stations in adopting states.
• Every city of more than 1 lakh people, and every major road, railway and airport, publishes its first noise map and action plan.
• Rents are published for every city above 10 lakh people.
• Every completion certificate requires a finished frontage strip, every building site covers bare earth within 14 days of work stopping, and owners of existing buildings receive frontage notices.

Outcomes after year 1:

• The new homes from FSI 5 are built, and vacant homes come onto the rental market.
• Each city's noise action plan cuts the number of people affected by transport noise, towards 30% fewer by year 5.

Guardrails

• Building safety: a licensed engineer signs with 10-year liability (Chapter 20). Buildings over 15 m also need a fire certificate from a licensed fire engineer assigned at random (No licence raj).
• Tenants: any tenant household under the Chapter 23 test (income under ₹1.2 lakh, net assets under ₹10 lakh) gets the standard transfer within 30 days, like every other household. There is no separate housing payment for any group.
• Rents: rents are published quarterly for every city above 10 lakh people.
• No bare ground: the strip is never more than 5 metres deep and stays public land, open to all; the city's published standard keeps it permeable where groundwater recharge matters, and utility work under it follows the dig-once rules (Chapter 20), with the digger restoring it within 7 days.

Limits to know

FSI and building permits are state and municipal subjects, so they spread through grants and state adoption, while tenancy is set by central law. New homes near stations depend on water and sewer capacity, so each zone opens only as its infrastructure is certified.

Sources: Environmental Noise Directive, European Commission · Singapore LTA: external works requirements for developments · US EPA: 2022 Construction General Permit · New York City Administrative Code section 7-210, sidewalk liability · 11.09 million vacant homes, Housing.com · 30 million affordable deficit by 2030, Realty Today · Only 4 states adopted the Model Tenancy Act, Housing.com · FSI and urban density, Institute for Competitiveness · Greenaway-McGrevy and Phillips, The impact of upzoning on housing construction in Auckland, Journal of Urban Economics (2023) · Model Tenancy Act, 2021