Residents, bachelors, students and working women are facing residential problems due to acute shortage of accommodation facilities in the capital city. The private institutions should have their own accommodation system on reasonable rent, so that the accommodation problems could be avoided, said Yawar Bukhari, a media worker at Zero Point.
"Estate office should formulate a mechanism so that accommodation for government and private sectors could be available on merit", he added.
Rafi Hussain said that more hostels could provide relief to bachelors who come here from distant areas of the country in search of jobs and education.
He said he lived in a single room in Sector G 6/2 and said the main cause of accommodation shortage was the lack of bachelor hostels and proper housing schemes.
Muhammad Shoaib, a student of NUST University said that rents of rooms and houses had surged in the last few years due to the unprecedented influx of students and job seekers in the twin cities. "I am paying Rs 8,000 for a single unfurnished room and the owner raises rent, 10 percent every year," he added. He further said that due to non-availability of proper hostel facilities, he had to live in a small room. It is quite difficult for a student to find a reasonable living place at affordable rates in the capital," he said. "In the past five years, I have changed my residence many times due to the ill attitude of landlords or lack of basic facilities," he added.
Zainab Ali, an employee of a semi-government organisation said that private hostels had been charging Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 for a single bed accommodation adding that these hostels had no proper cleanliness system. "I am residing in a small room of a private hostel with three other girls due to paucity of hostels for girls in the twin cities," said Zainab.
Sadia Mushtaq another working women said "We pay Rs 7,000 per head to the hostel management who provide two time meals and breakfast." "There was no proper arrangement for cleanliness and the substandard food was being provided" she added.
She appealed to the authorities concerned to take steps for setting up new girls hostels in the twin cities because the existing hostel facilities were not sufficient to the ever-increasing women working class. Hussain Abbasi, a property dealer, said that bachelors were facing many problems in finding accommodation as owners preferred to rent out houses to families. He said that the situation getting aggravated, as new hostels and housing schemes were not being built, as the population was multiplied.
The rising trend of student's and employment seeking graduates' migration to the capital, across the country was increased manifold, he informed.
Another property dealer, Majid Hussain said that the rents of houses increased in winter because mostly people from Murree shift to the twin cities due to snowfall and chilly weather.