WHY PROPERTY RIGHTS MATTER

While India’s urban headlines may focus on new skyscrapers, the nation’s urban future rests on something more foundational: secure, accessible, and transparent property rights

- Arijit Dash

As India’s cities pulse with opportunity and promise, they grapple with an invisible, yet decisive force: property rights.

Determining who owns the land beneath our expanding metros—and what incentives urban dwellers have to invest—may be the key to India’s urban transformation.

For most urban families, owning a home is more than shelter—it’s a stepping stone toward upward mobility, access to credit, and security in the form of protection from eviction, legal recognition and ability to pass assets to future generations. Yet, millions across India’s cities live in houses built on uncertain ground—not for want of effort, but owing to unclear or nonexistent property rights. Nearly 1 in 4 urban Indians—an estimated 65 to 98 million—live in slums, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and UN-Habitat (2019). An additional 15-25% reside in “unauthorised” housing, where formal property rights are absent (MoHUA, 2019). These homes exist in a legal twilight zone—overlooked by authorities, taxed informally yet unrecognised in official records. This legal invisibility has consequences. Families hesitate to invest in upgrading homes or sanitation without legal tenure. Banks won’t lend, governments can’t plan, and residents remain vulnerable to eviction.

This ambiguity isn’t merely a legal technicality but has socioeconomic consequences. It discourages investment: why upgrade a home or improve sanitation if the land can be claimed by another party or the government at any time? Lack of formal proof also blocks access to formal credit, insurance, and government schemes, trapping families in cycles of informality and vulnerability.