Indian culture and society cannot be easily generalised. Its heterogeneity owes as much to its scale as to the rich tapestry of cultures evident from Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra, Odisha to Rajasthan. Its urban centres are beyond conventional definitions of a city- Mumbai’s broader area is composed of over 20 million people. By the same metric, New Delhi may be as large as 30 million, while even Chennai and Bengaluru are around 10 million. The particular challenges of infrastructure and providing adequate housing for the individuals and households who make up one of the most vibrant economies in the world, is fraught with complexity. And this is no more evident than in the area of affordable housing.

It is well-known that real estate has been slow to catch up with the burgeoning use of data science in financial analysis. However, things are starting to change: