Federal Minister for Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah has said that house has become out of the reach of the poor and low-income group, therefore, bankers, engineers, developers and builders must prepare a package of 'model house' affordable to the people of low-income group.
While addressing the concluding session of the Pakistan Housing Sector Conference-2005, organised by the Pakistan Engineering Council, here on Thursday, Safwanullah said: "House financing has become difficult task for the bankers due to disputes over title of plots, and hardships are being faced in breaching the outdated patwari system in the country."
"The National Housing Policy, which was announced in 2001, could not be implemented due to non-co-operation on the part of provinces, he said, adding "the federal government can only provide guidelines but the provincial and district governments are required to ensure implementation on the policy because town planning, housing societies and construction activities fall under their purview."
He revealed that building code would be prepared by the end of this month but certain legal issues are involved. "The present government, for the first time, devised a plan under which 1000 flats are being constructed for the low-grade government employees," he said and pointed out that during a meeting with the prime minister it was decided to develop housing projects in each district for the government employees and provincial and district governments have been asked to identify 100-acre land for the purpose.
Unfortunately, except a few districts, no identification was received in this regard, the minister said.
PROPOSAL TO SBP: "A proposal was submitted to the State Bank wherein it was demanded that every bank should be restricted to open separate counter for house financing and there should be no tax on such financing so that construction activities could be boosted to provide houses to the low-income group people," he said.
The conference also compiled recommendations, which include: provision of land at subsidised rates for low-income group, fixed mark-up rate and refinancing facilities for housing, introduction of professionalism in the housing sector instead of appointing retired bureaucrat or army officers, small plots for 80 percent low-income group people in the housing societies, launching of social housing projects and provision of civic and other amentias on subsidised rates, commencement of vertical construction instead of horizontal to avert disaster due to earthquake, promulgation of Developers Act and immediate implementation on the National Housing Policy 2001.
Earlier, in his key-note address, deputy chairman, Planning and Development Division Dr Akram Shaikh said the housing backlog estimated at 4.3 million units in 1998 has been increased to around 6 million units in 2005 and the incremental housing need during the Medium-Term Development Framework (MTDF) 2005-10 will be 3 million housing units.
As against the current annual incremental demand of estimated 570,000 housing units, only about 300,000 units are being built annually, mostly in urban areas, he added. Increasing housing construction from 300,000 units in 2005 to 800,000 by 2010 will only cater to the incremental demand during MTDF.
He said: "The housing construction activity and productivity are rising in recent years as a result of macro-economic stabilisation, rising incomes and some reforms in the sector."
He said: "Less than 1 percent of the GDP, housing sector is still relatively small in Pakistan when compared to many other countries where share of the housing sector is much higher at 4-6 percent of GDP."
"In majority of cases, traditional construction techniques are still being used, which achieve only about 10 percent of international benchmarks. Productivity could be increased manifold, among others, through standardisation and mass scale production," he added.
Because of incentives given by the government, many international developers from the UAE, Malaysia and Singapore have recently joined the construction sector and some major projects have been launched. "Still there remains a large gap between demand and supply while the rich and affluent can take care of their housing needs, it is the poor and underprivileged that deserve attention, more so from the private sector."
PLENTY OF SCOPE: He said: "There is plenty of scope in low-cost housing in major urban areas of Pakistan for the professionally competent and enterprising individuals and corporations."
"There would be need to increase availability of developed land, enhance proportion of small size plots for low income groups, utilise land more effectively, build capacity for land administration, discourage speculation in land, improve housing construction technology, provide sufficient and affordable credit for rural housing and invest in human capital to improve the quality of construction," he said.
All these challenges will require active involvement of real estate developers and builders, government officials, bankers and housing building financiers, architects and engineers, building material producers, community workers and media, he added.
He stated that the government with active involvement of engineers started a holistic and comprehensive approach for the development of rural and urban areas to ensure balanced development. "The planning framework includes a national spatial strategy, provincial spatial development plans, district structure plans, tehsil master plans, and action area plans," he said, adding "this framework will facilitate balanced development of human settlements with planned areas of housing and provision of related infrastructure."
He further said: "A particular focus is management of large cities through an integrated development approach, development of satellite and new towns, and industrial corridors with adequate provision of affordable housing." A critical constraint in the development of the housing sector has been inadequate housing finance, he said.
"As a result of earthquake of October 8, there is a greater recognition of the need for construction of earthquake-resistant low-cost housing,' he added.
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