Introduction

With increasing rural-to-urban migration, the growing demand for housing and the severe dearth (Zia et al, 2019) in supply are not surprising. Migrant populations largely rely on rental accommodations to meet their housing needs. In India, thousands of young adults aged between 18 and 30, from relatively income-poor segments, migrate to urban centres each year for education or employment, seeking inexpensive accommodation for the duration of their stay (Government of India, 2017). In cities with high economic growth and employment opportunities, this demand for affordable housing is being addressed by the mushrooming of a particular typology of informal rental housing, colloquially known as ‘paying guest accommodations’ (PGs). Informal housing of this type is generally single sex in nature, cash based and rented out for either short-term or long-term durations.

PGs usually involve three main stakeholders: tenants, landowners and operators – third-party actors who manage the facilities. These shared accommodations, while being affordable and viable, often fall short in terms of adequacy. Adequacy in the context of rental housing refers to the quality of the housing in terms of ventilation, lighting, hygiene and so on. Affordability, here, refers to the financial capacity of an individual to rent a house, and viability refers to factors such as proximity to places of work and access to transport and social and physical infrastructure (Deb, 2016).