Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC)

What is the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes scheme?

Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) is a sub-scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban, run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The Union Cabinet approved it in July 2020, during the return migration that followed the first COVID-19 lockdown, to address a gap the rest of PMAY-U did not cover: a worker who has recently moved to a city does not want to buy a house, but needs a decent room near the workplace at a rent he can pay.

ARHC therefore builds and lets, rather than subsidising purchase. According to the ARHC portal, units are reserved exclusively for rental housing for a minimum of 25 years, and rent is fixed by the local authority rather than by the market.

Unit types permitted

• Single-bedroom dwelling units of up to 30 sqm.
• Double-bedroom dwelling units of up to 60 sqm. A maximum of 33% of the houses in any project.
• Dormitory beds of up to 10 sqm each, in 4-bed or 6-bed rooms.

All types include common facilities such as water supply, sanitation, kitchen and electricity.

What are the two ARHC models?

Model 1 converts existing government-funded vacant houses; built under JnNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana and never occupied, into ARHCs, handing them to a concessionaire through Public Private Partnership or to a public agency for 25 years.

Model 2 covers construction, operation and maintenance of new ARHCs by public or private entities on their own vacant land. This is the model that carries the bulk of the incentives, because the entity brings the land and the capital.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 5,478 existing government-funded vacant houses had been converted into ARHCs under Model 1, with a further 7,483 units at various stages of development, while proposals for 78,885 new ARHC units had been sanctioned under Model 2.

Who is eligible for an ARHC unit?

You can apply to rent an ARHC unit if you are:

• An urban migrant or urban poor worker from the EWS or LIG category.
• An industrial worker or construction worker in the city.
• Working with market and trade associations, or in educational or health institutions, or in the hospitality sector.
• A student or a long-term visitor to the city, which the scheme explicitly includes.

You cannot apply if:

• You are looking for a house to own. ARHC gives tenancy only; ownership routes are the Beneficiary Led Construction, Affordable Housing in Partnership and Interest Subsidy verticals of PMAY-U 2.0.
• You expect a cash subsidy. ARHC pays no money to a beneficiary. The benefit is the below-market rent itself.
• There is no ARHC project in your city. Coverage is limited to the cities where a state or a private entity took up a project, so most Indian towns have none.
• You are a developer or investor seeking a new central sanction now; fresh ARHC proposals belonged to the PMAY-U mission period that ran to March 2022, and rental housing continues under PMAY-U 2.0.

What documents are required for an ARHC unit?

Requirements differ by operator and by state, since allotment is handled locally rather than by a central portal.

How to apply for an ARHC unit

Affordable Rental Housing Complexes has no central online application. The route below is the real one.

1. Find out whether your city has an operating ARHC project — check arhc.mohua.gov.in or ask the Urban Local Body or state housing board.
2. Identify the concessionaire or public agency running that project; ARHC units are allotted by the operator, not by the ministry.
3. Approach the operator's site office with Aadhaar and proof of your work in the city, and ask for a single room, double room or dormitory bed depending on whether your family is with you.
4. If you are an industrial or construction worker, ask your employer or contractor first; many ARHC blocks are filled through bulk tie-ups with employers rather than individual walk-ins.
5. Sign the rental agreement with the operator, checking the monthly rent against the rate the local authority has fixed for that project.
6. Raise any dispute over rent or maintenance with the Urban Local Body, which is the authority that fixed the rent, and escalate to the state ARHC nodal officer if unresolved.

How to apply as a developer or public agency

1. Watch for the Request for Proposal issued by the state government or Urban Local Body; MoHUA circulated a model RFP to states for this purpose.
2. Submit a proposal under Model 1 for existing vacant government houses, or Model 2 for construction on your own vacant land.
3. Sign the concession agreement for the 25-year operating period after selection.
4. Claim the applicable incentives: additional FSI, concessional project finance and the tax concessions: through the state and the lending institution.

What incentives does the government give?

According to the Cabinet decision and the ministry's releases, entities taking up ARHC projects receive:

• 50% additional Floor Space Index or Floor Area Ratio free of cost.
• Concessional project finance at priority sector lending rates.
• Income tax exemption on profits from ARHC operations under section 80-IBA of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• GST treatment at par with rental services of residential premises.
• A Technology Innovation Grant, for which a total outlay of about Rs 600 crore was estimated, released for projects using identified innovative construction technologies.

The same treatment applies across the whole 25-year concession period, which is what makes a low fixed rent financially workable for the operator.

Where ARHC stands today

ARHC was designed within the PMAY-U mission period ending March 2022, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has since carried rental housing forward as a dedicated vertical of PMAY-U 2.0, approved in August 2024. Existing ARHC projects continue under their concessions, and a worker looking for a room today should ask about both the older ARHC stock and any new rental housing project sanctioned under PMAY-U 2.0 in that city.

Help and contact

• ARHC cell, MoHUA: 011-23060484, 011-23063620
• Email: arhc-mohua@gov.in
• Portal: arhc.mohua.gov.in
• Urban Local Body or state housing board, for rent fixation, allotment and complaints about a specific project

No fee is payable to obtain an ARHC allotment beyond the rent and any security deposit stated in the rental agreement.