Hyderabad remains third least affordable housing market among top 8 cities: Knight Frank

Hyderabad continued to be the third least affordable residential market among eight major Indian cities during the first half of 2026, with households needing 41% of their monthly income to pay monthly housing installments (EMIs), according to the latest Knight Frank India Affordability Index. The level of affordability has remained unchanged since the end of 2025 despite a cumulative 125 basis points of monetary policy easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The affordability index measures the proportion of household income required to finance the monthly EMIs per housing unit. According to Knight Frank, an EMI to income ratio above 50% is considered unaffordable as banks rarely underwrite mortgages above this level.

Only the Mumbai metropolitan region (69%) and the National Capital Region (67%) recorded a higher EMI-to-income ratio than Hyderabad (41%). Bengaluru scored 35%, followed by Chennai (29%), Pune (28%), Kolkata (25%) and Ahmedabad (23%), making Ahmedabad the most affordable residential market in the country among the eight cities analysed.

The report said six of the eight cities remained below the 50% affordability threshold. Affordability has slightly worsened in Bengaluru and the National Capital Region compared to 2025, while Hyderabad and the remaining markets have remained more or less stable. Lower borrowing costs following RBI’s cumulative rate cuts are expected to continue supporting housing demand through the second half of 2026.

Knight Frank said housing affordability in India’s major cities improved steadily between 2016 and 2021, receiving a further boost during the pandemic when the RBI cut interest rates to record lows. Availability worsened after the central bank raised the repo rate by 250 basis points between May 2022 and early 2023 to curb inflation. More recently, cumulative monetary easing has improved the availability of home loans, although rising residential property prices have moderated these gains.

Published – 05 Jul 2026 18:49 IST