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Industry brief · Home & Living

Home and living, where our guest makes home textiles

One Building Real guest works in home and living. In India, Nanda Kumar and his co-founder Abhinaya run The Yellow Dwelling, a natural-fibre home-textiles brand that sells through its own stores. This brief covers what is happening around them in India, from new homes, household budgets and shop space to deals, tax and furniture rules, with a look at chemical-safety standards set elsewhere.

India
Checked 20 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

12%

of D2C brands' retail leasing in India in H1 2026 went to homeware and furnishings, according to CBRE, with D2C brands taking around 28% of all retail leasing1

Half-year figures from one CBRE release. Leasing is shop space taken, not sales
Rs 6,996

average monthly per-capita consumption spending in urban India, against Rs 4,122 in rural India, in the 2023-24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey2

Excludes the imputed value of items received free through welfare programmes. The latest survey round
~1,00,220

homes sold across India's top seven cities in July-September 2026, up 3% year on year, while new launches rose 18%, according to ANAROCK Research3

One quarter, seven cities. Housing context, not a measure of furnishing demand
1 crore+

houses completed and delivered under India's urban housing scheme PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0, out of over 1.25 crore sanctioned, the Housing Ministry said in August 20264

Cumulative across both phases of the scheme, mostly affordable housing. Not a furnishing market
165

Wakefit company-owned stores after the June 2026 quarter, in which it added 275

Company results reported by the press. Its next quarterly results are due soon

02How AI is showing up

What companies say they are doing

  • Interiors. Home-interiors platform Livspace cut around 1,000 jobs in February 2026; the company said the cuts followed the integration of advanced AI agents and automation across its core functions6.
  • Styling and discovery. Vaaree, which lists more than 1,50,000 décor, furnishings, kitchenware, lighting and bed-and-bath products, runs VibeCheck, an AI-based styling tool that helps shoppers discover products based on their preferences7. Its Rs 65 crore Series A is meant to expand its fulfilment network and strengthen that AI-driven styling and discovery platform8.
Company statements relayed by the press. They show what two companies are doing, not how widely AI is used in Indian home retail.

A consultancy's argument

BCG and the Retailers Association of India argue that Indian retailers pursuing AI-led functional transformation achieve structural gains of 40-60%, against 10-15% from legacy use-case-driven approaches9.

A consultancy estimate covering all retail, with no figures for home categories. Its method is not disclosed.

03Where the money is moving

Recent home-category deals

  1. Sleep. The Sleep Company raised Rs 480 crore in a Series D led by ChrysCapital and 360 ONE Asset10.
  2. Home furnishings. Online D2C home-furnishings brand Haus & Kinder raised Rs 30 crore in a round led by Sauce.vc, after about Rs 20 crore earlier from family offices11.
  3. Home and sleep. Wakefit, a D2C home and sleep company, listed on 15 Dec 2025 after a Rs 1,288.88 crore IPO, of which Rs 371.18 crore was fresh capital; shares debuted at Rs 194.10, 0.46% below the Rs 195 issue price12.
  4. Large-format stores. IKEA is investing around Rs 7,000 crore to expand in India's National Capital Region, where it plans to open stores in Gurugram and Noida, IANS reported in February 202613.
  5. Home decor. Online home-decor and furnishings marketplace Vaaree raised Rs 65 crore in a Series A led by Hero Enterprise and Cap Alpha Ventures8.
Each deal comes from a separate report and they are not added up. IKEA's figure is a planned investment, not money spent.

How the larger companies are doing

  • Wakefit. Revenue from operations rose 16.6% year on year to Rs 404.9 crore in the June 2026 quarter, and profit after tax rose 19.2% to Rs 23.4 crore5.
  • IKEA India. Revenue from operations fell 3.33% to Rs 1,749.50 crore in FY25, according to a regulatory filing cited by IANS14. CEO Patrik Antoni told PTI the company plans to add 25 small and medium-format stores in the next four to five years and has 'an ambition to be profitable by the end of FY28'15.
  • Livspace. The home-interiors platform reported revenue of Rs 1,460 crore for the year to March 2025 and narrowed its losses by 42%16.
Company results and plans reported by the press, for market context only. Sleep, furniture and interiors companies are not benchmarks for any one home-textiles business.

Online brands are paying for shop space

D2C brands' share of India's retail leasing (CBRE)

H1 2025
~23%
H1 2026
~28%

D2C brands took around 28% of India's retail leasing in H1 2026, up from around 23% in H1 2025, and homeware and furnishings made up 12% of that D2C leasing, according to CBRE1.

Leasing measures shop space taken, not sales.

Market estimates

  • Redseer. Redseer Strategy, a consultancy, values India's home and furnishings market at ₹2.8-3.0 trillion (US$34-36 billion) in 2024 and expects it to grow at 11-13% a year to ₹5.2-5.9 trillion (US$63-71 billion) by 203017.
  • Mordor Intelligence. Mordor Intelligence, a market-research firm, estimates India's home-textile market at US$11.18 billion in 2025 and says offline channels still took about 88% of sales18.
Commercial estimates with different scopes, currencies and methods. Redseer's sizing categories are mattresses, furniture, furnishings and decor; Mordor's covers home textiles such as bed, bath and kitchen linen, upholstery and carpets. Do not convert, add or compare them.

04Homes and household budgets

The homes being built and sold

  • Urban households. India has 11.3 crore urban households, according to a parliamentary Standing Committee review presented in August 202619.
  • Private housing. Housing sales across India's top seven cities rose 3% year on year to around 1,00,220 units in July-September 2026, while new launches rose 18% to around 1,14,320 units, according to ANAROCK Research3.
  • Public housing. Over 1.25 crore houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0, and more than 1 crore of them have been completed and delivered, the Housing Ministry said in August 20264. Houses sanctioned under PMAY-U 2.0 alone had crossed 18.38 lakh20.
Context for the number of homes, not a measure of furnishing demand. PMAY homes are mostly affordable housing, and the PMAY-U 2.0 count is part of the scheme total, not extra.

What households spend and shops sell

Rs 6,996

average monthly per-capita consumption spending in urban India in 2023-24, against Rs 4,122 in rural India, excluding the imputed value of items received free through social welfare programmes2

10%

year-on-year sales growth reported in August 2026 by retailers surveyed by the Retailers Association of India, with consumer durables and electronics up 7%21

A one-month survey of RAI member retailers, not national retail sales. It has no furniture or furnishings category, so the durables figure is not home-category growth.

05What governments and standard-setters are changing

India: tax and furniture rules

  1. GST on made-ups. From 22 September 2025, GST on made-up textile articles priced above Rs 2,500 per piece rose from 12% to 18%, and the 5% rate applies to those priced up to Rs 2,500 per piece22.
  2. GST on floor coverings and cane furniture. India cut GST on carpets and other textile floor coverings, and on furniture made wholly of bamboo, cane or rattan, from 12% to 5%, effective 22 September 202523.
  3. Quality control orders. Crisil Ratings said that, after the withdrawal of quality control orders on several polymer and fibre intermediates, India's home-textile segment may see only a limited positive impact because of its higher dependence on cotton-based exports24.
  4. Furniture. India amended its Furniture (Quality Control) Order, 2025, letting manufacturers certified by, or applying to, the Bureau of Indian Standards sell declared stock made or imported before the order took effect for up to twelve months from implementation, against a self-declaration25.
  5. Furniture. Trade publication Ply Reporter reported that the furniture quality control order, requiring BIS certification and the ISI mark for work chairs, stools, tables, desks, storage units and beds under standards IS 17631 to IS 17636, began to apply from 13 February 202626.
The GST releases list product groups by tariff heading, not individual items. The furniture order covers furniture only; the sources show no such order for home textiles. The Ply Reporter date is a trade press report and does not mean every furniture maker had to comply from that day.

Chemical safety: global, EU and US

  1. Stockholm Convention. The parties to the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants listed decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), a flame retardant, in Annex A for elimination, with various specific exemptions27.
  2. OEKO-TEX. The private textile-safety certifier banned the intentional use of PFAS across all its certifications in 2024 and has since set limit values for individual PFAS and for total PFAS, the total limit in January 202628.
  3. European Union. The European Commission restricted PFHxA and related substances, a sub-group of PFAS 'forever chemicals', in consumer textiles such as rain jackets, food packaging, waterproofing sprays and cosmetics, with transition periods of 18 months to 5 years depending on the use29.
  4. OEKO-TEX. It issued 60,495 certificates and labels in its 2025/26 financial year, up from 57,412 a year earlier30.
  • Indoor air (US). The US Environmental Protection Agency says studies have found levels of several organic chemicals average 2 to 5 times higher indoors than outdoors, and lists building materials and furnishings among many products that emit volatile organic compounds31.
Global, EU and US context, not Indian law. OEKO-TEX is a voluntary private standard and its certificate count covers all products worldwide. The EPA lists furnishings as one of many sources, alongside products such as paints, solvents and cleaners.

06Trends to watch

Online home brands are opening shops

D2C brands took around 28% of India's retail leasing in H1 2026, up from around 23% in H1 2025, and homeware and furnishings made up 12% of that D2C leasing, according to CBRE1. Wakefit's company-owned regular stores grew from 23 in March 2023 to 125 by September 202512, and it added 27 in the June 2026 quarter to reach 1655.

Most home sales still happen in person

Mordor Intelligence, a market-research firm, says offline channels still took about 88% of India's home-textile sales18. The Sleep Company says offline channels, including over 150 exclusive outlets, bring in 70% of its sales10.

IKEA is expanding while its revenue dips

IKEA India's revenue from operations fell 3.33% to Rs 1,749.50 crore in FY25, according to a regulatory filing cited by IANS14. IANS reported in February 2026 that IKEA is investing around Rs 7,000 crore to expand in the National Capital Region13, and CEO Patrik Antoni told PTI it plans to add 25 small and medium-format stores in the next four to five years15.

GST moved both ways for home goods

India cut GST on carpets and other textile floor coverings, and on furniture made wholly of bamboo, cane or rattan, from 12% to 5%, effective 22 September 202523. From the same date, GST on made-up textile articles priced above Rs 2,500 per piece rose from 12% to 18%22.

New homes keep coming

Housing sales across India's top seven cities rose 3% year on year in July-September 2026, while new launches rose 18%, according to ANAROCK Research3. Houses sanctioned under PMAY-U 2.0 had crossed 18.38 lakh by August 202620. Both count homes, not furnishing purchases.

07The problem our guest is solving

Nanda Kumar on Building Real
India

EP04Nanda Kumar · The Yellow Dwelling

Rs 100-120

per kg for polyester yarn (POY) in fiscal 2025, against Rs 240-260 per kg for cotton yarn, according to Crisil Ratings32

  • Materials. The Yellow Dwelling says it works exclusively with sustainable, biodegradable materials like cotton, linen, jute, river grass and banana fibre, and uses only OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, water-based dyes33.
  • Reach. The company says it began in 2017 as a small Facebook page and now has retail presence in five cities, with a home-visit service in 1234.
Company statements from its own website, not independently verified.

Nanda Kumar says he and Abhinaya left FMCG and finance careers to build a natural-fibre home-textiles brand. In the episode he explains why they weave their own cotton and sell through their own stores, and says the business has stayed profitable every month without outside funding.

Watch the episode →

See how these conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →

08Sources

One research agent gathered 36 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 20 figures as written, corrected 16 and cut 0. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. CBRE India press release, 29 Jul 2026 · H1 2026 (Jan-Jun)
  2. MoSPI via PIB, 27 Dec 2024 · HCES 2023-24 (Aug 2023-Jul 2024 survey; released 27 Dec 2024)
  3. Business Today, 29 Sep 2026, citing ANAROCK Research · Q3 2026 (Jul-Sep), published 29 Sep 2026
  4. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs via PIB, 9 Aug 2026 · Cumulative to 9 Aug 2026
  5. YourStory, 7 Aug 2026 (company results) · Q1 FY27 (Apr-Jun 2026), reported 7 Aug 2026
  6. Inc42, 20 Feb 2026 · February 2026
  7. YourStory, 4 Aug 2026 · August 2026
  8. YourStory, 4 Aug 2026 · August 2026
  9. BCG and Retailers Association of India, 'Winning Codes for Retail 2035', Feb 2026 · Report February 2026
  10. YourStory, 6 Aug 2025 · August 2025
  11. Inc42, 12 Nov 2025 · November 2025
  12. Business Standard (Capital Market news), 15 Dec 2025 · IPO listing 15 Dec 2025; stores as of 30 Sep 2025
  13. IANS, 4 Feb 2026 · Stated February 2026
  14. IANS, 4 Feb 2026 (registrar filing via Tofler) · FY25 (Apr 2024-Mar 2025)
  15. Outlook Business (PTI), 6 Mar 2026 · Stated March 2026
  16. Entrackr, 20 Feb 2026 · FY25 (year to March 2025)
  17. Redseer Strategy case study (commercial estimate), 15 Dec 2025 · 2024 estimate; 2030 projection (published 15 Dec 2025)
  18. Mordor Intelligence (commercial estimate), page updated 30 Jul 2026 · 2025 estimate (page updated 30 Jul 2026)
  19. PRS Legislative Research (Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs), Aug 2026 · Standing Committee report presented 4 Aug 2026
  20. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs via PIB, 9 Aug 2026 · As of 9 Aug 2026
  21. IBEF, 24 Sep 2026, reporting the RAI business survey · August 2026 (RAI Business Survey Round 74)
  22. Ministry of Finance via PIB, 56th GST Council recommendations (Annexure I), 3 Sep 2025 · Effective 22 Sep 2025
  23. Ministry of Finance via PIB, 56th GST Council recommendations (Annexure I), 3 Sep 2025 · Effective 22 Sep 2025
  24. Crisil Ratings press release, 20 Nov 2025 · November 2025
  25. Bureau of Indian Standards: Furniture (Quality Control) Amendment Order, 2026 (gazette, 12 Feb 2026) · Amendment S.O. 774(E), 12 Feb 2026
  26. Ply Reporter (trade press), 14 Feb 2026 · Effective from 13 Feb 2026 (reported 14 Feb 2026)
  27. Stockholm Convention Secretariat (UNEP), PBDEs overview (undated page) · COP-8, 2017 (decision SC-8/10)
  28. OEKO-TEX Annual Report 2025/2026 (Sep 2026) · Ban 2024; total-PFAS limit January 2026
  29. European Commission (Representation in Luxembourg), 19 Sep 2024 · Adopted 19 Sep 2024
  30. OEKO-TEX Annual Report 2025/2026 (Sep 2026) · FY 2025/26
  31. US EPA, Volatile Organic Compounds' Impact on Indoor Air Quality (updated 23 Jun 2026) · EPA page last updated 23 Jun 2026 (underlying US studies from the 1980s)
  32. Crisil Ratings press release, 20 Nov 2025 · FY2025 (Apr 2024-Mar 2025)
  33. The Yellow Dwelling, About us page (company website, read 20 Oct 2026) · Company website, read 20 Oct 2026
  34. The Yellow Dwelling, About us page (company website, read 20 Oct 2026) · Company website, read 20 Oct 2026