Build Ahead’s latest working paper explores how India’s green housing finance ecosystem can evolve to unlock sustainable growth in the built environment, and maps current financing instruments, assesses institutional readiness and identifies pathways to scale certified green lending through collaboration among financiers, developers and certification bodies. This marks the first step towards a shared roadmap for mainstreaming green capital in India’s construction and real estate sectors.
India’s construction boom presents a once-in-a-generation chance to embed sustainability into how we build and finance our cities. With buildings and materials contributing a significant share of national emissions—and over 70% of 2030’s building stock yet to be built—scaling green finance is essential to unlock low-carbon construction at speed and at scale.
This working paper maps India’s green housing finance landscape and outlines practical pathways to mainstream certified green buildings through retail mortgages, developer finance, refinance lines, and capital market instruments.
The latest in our work on decarbonising the built environment, this paper distils:
- Where India’s green building finance stands today—actors, products, flows, and gaps
- How green finance can translate lifetime efficiency savings into upfront affordability
- The role of certification systems (IGBC, GRIHA, EDGE, LEED) in de-risking lending and enabling preferential pricing—now shifting towards embodied-carbon metrics
- Priority levers to scale: harmonised standards and taxonomy, concessional refinance, bundled incentives, and ecosystem capacity building
This paper aims to equip lenders, developers, policymakers, DFIs, and certification bodies with a baseline view of India’s green finance architecture—and a roadmap to accelerate adoption across the housing and construction value chain. The goal: channel mainstream capital towards verified, lower-carbon assets and catalyse market transformation.
Suman Jagdev
Partner, Xynteo; Programme Director, Build Ahead India
Milan Kaur
Manager
Smriti Viswesvaran
Consultant
