Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is a Central Government initiative to provide affordable housing for the urban and rural poor of India. It was launched in 25^th June 2015, with an aim to complete by the end of 2022. The Government of India proposed to build almost 2 Crore houses for the urban poor under the “Housing for All” policy.

An overview of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

• 1.53 Crore – Houses already built under PMAY till 2019. 
• Rs. 25,853 Crore – Has been allocated to build residential properties across India.
• 72.5 Lakh – Houses have been sanctioned under this project. 

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is aimed towards the economically weaker section, lower and middle-income group of the society living in the urban areas. A significant number of them could not afford quality housing because of the high cost of residential properties in metropolitan cities.

PMAY was initiated to lower these figures and to curb the large numbers of homeless peoples across India. Under this scheme, individuals from selected income groups can avail loans from lenders at a heavily subsidized home loan interest rate to purchase houses constructed under PMAY scheme.

Similar to any other form of advance, it is essential to know everything about Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana before applying for this credit linked subsidy scheme. Important aspects like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana eligibility criteria should be carefully considered to ensure instant approval of one’s application.

PMAY eligibility criteria – 

The eligibility requirement for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has been clearly defined to work as a route map for both lenders and borrowers. The advance under this policy is disbursed by several financial institutions that have registered under the PMAY scheme; to maintain a parallel between all lenders, a strict guideline has been enforced by the Government of India stating various terms (including minimum income) to filter through applications. Let’s take a look.

• Ownership – An applicant of PM Awas Yojana should not own a house, or any residential property, in any parts of India. His or her immediate family members should not have any property in their name either. 

• Benefits – The applicant or any of their immediate family members should not have availed any benefit from any housing-related scheme brought by the Government of India in the past. Applicants who have availed such benefits will not be able to enjoy the key benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

• Income – Prospective applicants, has to comply with any of the four different income groups to fulfill Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana eligibility criteria. These have been categorized as Economically Weaker Section (EWS), Low Income Group (LIG), Medium Income Group 1 (MIG 1), and Medium Income Group 2 (MIG 2).

An applicant’s income is calculated based on their household income, which includes the corpus earned by the applicant, their spouse, or any immediate family member of their house. To categorize into EWS, an applicant should have an annual household income of less than Rs. 3 Lakh.

• For LIG, an applicant’s annual household income has to be between Rs. 3 Lakh to Rs. 6 Lakh.
• Applicants under the MIG 1 Category should have an annual household income lower than Rs. 12 Lakh, whereas MIG 2 category applicants should have an income between Rs. 12 to Rs. 18 Lakh per annum.

In all cases, applicants have to provide necessary documents along with their application to prove they fall under PM Awas Yojana.

• Others – Individuals hailing from minority groups (SC/ST/OBC) as well as women from the EWS and LIG category are eligible to apply for PMAY. However, they will have to provide their caste and income certificate at the time of application.

There are several financial institutions that offer subsidized home loans under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Many companies have tools like PMAY Eligibility Calculator that allows an applicant to check their eligibility against the Government imposed criteria. They also offer you low interest home loans with several borrower-friendly policies.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana eligibility has been carefully determined to offer maximum benefits to those in need. The above-mentioned details contain all the important aspects a future applicant should know about this policy.