Residential real estate is a key beneficiary of the Indian Opportunity. A study of national and regional income distributions allows for a fundamental understanding of the market opportunity. At present only six million households earn over $11,000 pa. This is poised to rise to nine million by 2015. 55mn Indian households will earn between $4,400 and $11,000 pa by 2015. At current home market prices there is a serious affordability gap for a large percentage of the urban households. The most acute affordability gaps are in Tier One cities where many households are living in highly congested or dilapidated conditions. Addressing the affordability gap requires specialized affordable housing at a price of 4x to 5x annual income in well connected urban/suburban locations. Rising incomes and urbanization trends suggest that there is likely to be continued pressure on and demand for affordable housing. Ownership of land and property in high density metropolitan areas has proven to be a good investment when held for periods of five years or more. For example, a review of a sample of houses, land plots and flats purchased & held over differing time periods spanning 4 years to 28 years covering areas of Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida evidences asset price inflation ranging from 13% to 32% pa with a median of 20% pa. Finding an appropriate investment vehicle to benefit from the affordable housing theme is challenging. Many local developers are leveraged multi product plays with opaque land banks and listed stocks already trading at a multiple of book value. Investment funds managed by banks or other financial managers tend to be reliant on third party developers for project identification and execution.