Realty experts point to a shortage of 23 million residential units in India. The rising prices only add to the housing crisis.

But is it possible to develop affordable houses with such high input costs? Affordable housing is possible if land comes at an `affordable' cost, says Mr Irfan Razack, Vice-President - Confederation of Real Estate Associations of India (CREDAI). "Unfortunately, such land is available only far away from the city, and hence government support in the form of necessary infrastructure is vital."

Mr Kishore Jain, Managing Director, Jain Heights and Structures Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore-based real-estate company, says that affordable housing is the future for the real-estate sector. "Be it the mobile revolution or aviation revolution, the common man was able to benefit. You can see even a villager using mobiles these days, or people from small towns taking flights even till recently. But only in the housing revolution has it not been beneficial for the common man. Affordability is still an issue here," he says.