Country facing shortfall of 6m housing units

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Razi Syed
KARACHI: The country, at present, is facing a shortfall of 6 million housing units and in order to bridge this gap the government needs to provide adequate funding for House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), Vice chairman, standing committee on housing and construction industry of FPCCI, Saleem Kassim Patel said.

“Regulations stated by commercial banks and financial organisations to buy and construct a house, are virtually impossible for one to meet,” he added. He said in order to provide shelter to the people of low- and middle-income group the government should chalk out plan on concrete grounds.

“Without adequate structural support provided to HBFC from the government the lower and middle-income groups would always invariably worry about housing”, he maintained. He said the purpose of forming HBFC was to help these groups, so that they could easily claim ownership to their respective residences.

He said there would be greater need for housing units for low-income people during the next 2 years. He asked the government to take steps for improving the existing infrastructure and also provide new infrastructure for upcoming schemes in major cities of the country.

He said the government should provide all out support for such innovative activities, which do not involve much of cost.

According to National Housing Policy of 2001, within 6 years loans worth Rs 7 billion were granted to residential units, he added.

He said in 2006, HBFC and IFC together to promote HBFC’s interest and sustainability conducted a study which showed by 2009, loans worth Rs 9 billion are needed to fortify construction and maintain viability of the organisation.

There is no doubt that government alone cannot provide housing facilities to each citizen of Pakistan, and the role of private sector in this regard cannot be ignored, he said.

He said builders from other countries like Kuwait and UAE have shown great interest in Pakistan housing and construction sectors besides providing a boost to local industries attached with these important sector, which provide large scale job opportunities.

Secretary Housing and Works, Sami Khilji said that the Rs 60 billion project launched under the Prime Minister Housing Scheme would not benefit the common man and the nation’s money is feared to be wasted. The secretary housing said this at the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Friday.

He told that under the Prime Minister Housing Scheme, 30,000 houses would be built and each house would cost Rs 2 million.

Sami Khilji said that this case is lying with the Law minister and no work has been initiated on this project. He said in his proposals that the decision in this regard should be taken after this matter is presented to the cabinet. He said that he would work as per the rules and regulations without coming under any pressure. The PAC issued directions to inform the committee regarding any development in the implementation of this project.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_6