Ajay Maken, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation announced the formulation of ‘Housing Start Up Index' (HSUI) by his ministry shortly in collaboration with Reserve Bank of India. He said that internationally, only 6 countries namely Canada, United States, Japan, France, Australia and New Zealand are compiling data related to building permits/housing starts on a regular basis.

The Index will serve as a tool/measure to reflect the change in housing sector and related industries vis a vis the entire economy. The number of housing starts during a given period reflects the institutional response to the existing number of building permits, besides the current demand for houses.

Accordingly, Housing starts is considered to be a lead economic indicator because of its Forward-Backward linkages with more than 270 industries.

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