Rental housing is a critical strategy to meet housing demand when self-owned housing is either not affordable or not feasible for large populations of low-income groups in cities. In this study, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has conducted an overview of rental housing in India keeping in mind rents, affordability, regulations, access to basic services among others. This study has focussed on the policy landscape from the perspective of liveability, quality of services and thermal comfort.