Nearly 10 mln households began building own houses in FY24, new survey shows
This story was originally published at 18:27 IST on 10 April 2026
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MUMBAI – Nearly 10 million households and over 1 million informal establishments undertook construction activities in 2023-24 (Apr-Mar), according to a new pilot survey by the government. On average, a household engaged in construction hired four labourers while an unincorporated establishment engaged five workers for such activities, the results of the pilot survey showed.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Friday released a technical report with the findings of a pilot study on construction activities in unincorporated sector establishments and households. The study is the ministry's first attempt in decades to estimate key economic indicators for construction activities undertaken by unincorporated construction agencies and own-account construction carried out by households for their own use.
The construction sector accounts for around 8% of India's GDP. It grew 7.1% in FY26, slower than the GDP growth of 7.6%, government data showed.
Construction activity was higher in rural areas compared with urban areas. Around 7.5 million estimated households undertook own-account construction in rural areas in FY24, higher than 2.3 million in urban areas.
Fixed assets owned per unincorporated establishment engaged in construction activity is estimated at INR 521,000. The financial access, as reflected by the outstanding loan per establishment in the sector, was estimated to be around INR 140,000, the ministry said.
The gross value added per market establishment for the unincorporated construction sector was estimated to be about INR 798,000 and the corresponding output per establishment was INR 1.6 million, the ministry said.
On average, about 97% of households used their own income as one of the sources to fund construction activities, accounting for around 77% of the total amount spent on construction. Nearly 21% of households availed an institutional loan for financing their construction activities, accounting for about 17% of the total construction expenditure, the survey results showed.
The proportion of households accessing institutional loans was higher in rural areas at 23% compared with urban areas at 13%. Higher use of loans to build houses in rural areas reflected increasing access to formal credit in rural areas, the ministry said. Further, 11% of households used other sources such as loans from friends, family, and money lenders to finance construction activities.
Proprietorship was the most dominant form of ownership in unincorporated construction establishments. Only 0.5% of the informal construction establishments were owned by females, while male proprietorships owned 96.8% of the total firms. End
Reported by Shubham Rana
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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