Nearly 1 crore Indian families construct homes themselves:97% households use income along with other financial sources to build houses

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released a technical report detailing the key findings of a pilot study on construction undertaken by unregistered (unincorporated) construction agencies and households over the past year. According to the ministry, the main activity in unincorporated construction in the country is due to approximately 1 crore (actual number 98.5 lakh) households building their own houses for their own residence. The number of unincorporated agencies engaged in construction was approximately 11 lakh. Maharashtra (1.3 lakh), Kerala (94,000) and Karnataka (90,000) recorded the highest number of unregistered construction agencies. Uttar Pradesh (13.8 lakh), Odisha (7.6 lakh) and Maharashtra (7.5 lakh) were ahead in household-level construction. 97% households rely more on their own income According to the report, 97% of families relied on their own income for construction. They contributed about 77% of the total expenditure from their own resources. 21% of families took institutional loans for about 17% of the cost. In this, the participation of rural areas (23%) was higher compared to urban areas (13%). This indicates improvement in access to formal credit. Materials accounted for 75% of the construction cost. Labor cost was about 22%. Materials like bricks, cement, and steel had a 60% share in the total material cost. More construction in rural areas instead of cities In the study conducted from July to December 2025, it was found that rural areas dominated construction activities. In rural areas, 6.5 lakh unregistered agencies were engaged in construction works. In urban areas, this number was around 3.7 lakh.