'Mumbai's middle class need 109 years': Startup founder exposes housing math no one wants to face

Middle-class Indians will need over a century to buy a modest home in Mumbai, says new data, spotlighting a housing crisis that’s not just about affordability, but about the unraveling of the country’s economic promise to its working population.

Startup founder Chandralekha MR called out a viral misreading of a National Housing Board (NHB) report on LinkedIn, clarifying that it's not the ultra-rich, but Mumbai’s middle class who face a 109-year timeline to homeownership. 

“Mumbai's RICH need 109 years to afford a house = FALSE,” she wrote. “Mumbai's MIDDLE-CLASS need 109 years to afford a house = TRUE.”

Her breakdown reveals the staggering math behind it: with an annual income of ₹10.7 lakh and yearly savings of just ₹3.2 lakh, it would take a household over a century to buy a ₹3.54 crore home. 

The crisis isn’t limited to Mumbai—Gurugram clocks in at 64 years, Kolkata at 39, and even Bengaluru, once touted as “affordable,” now requires 36 years of savings.

And that’s just the top 5%. For the 82% of Indian taxpayers earning under ₹10 lakh annually, owning a home in any major city is a far-off dream—unless inherited wealth, dual incomes, or crushing long-term debt intervene. 

India’s housing loan book reflects this desperation: it ballooned to ₹33.53 trillion in 2024, up 14% year-over-year. Loans are getting bigger, tenures longer, and financial stress deeper.

The deeper issue, experts say, is structural. Saurabh Mukherjea of Marcellus recently declared the “salaryman” era dead. “If you're still chasing promotions and pay raises, you're next,” he warned, arguing that middle-class Indians can no longer rely on stable jobs or predictable income. 

Instead, they must market their skills like entrepreneurs, even as automation and AI eat into white-collar employment—especially in IT, finance, and media.

Real incomes have stagnated for a decade while inflation and debt climb. Household savings are at a 50-year low. Young professionals face a grim choice: pursue growth in cities they can't afford, or abandon the homeownership dream altogether.

As Chandralekha concluded, “Families are sacrificing retirement, education, and well-being just to chase a roof over their heads.”