By Atif Khan
Islamabad: Governments can't do everything alone, by combining the strengths of private players with the public sector, the challenges of providing affordable housing can be overcome, said Iftikhar Ali Shallwani, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Works.
While addressing the opening ceremony of the 4-day International Housing and Real Estate Expo on Thursday, the Secretary said, Islamabad may extend towards Peshawar or Lahore, but a paradigm shift is required to build upward. He said he had positive meetings with the private sector and soon they will launch the first tallest building of Pakistan. He said, providing decent living to every citizen is the responsibility of the government under the constitution of Pakistan. Talking about unplanned development, he said, the experts need to devise a plan for future urban expansion.
The Chief Guest, Miss Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister of Climate Change, joined the conference very late and left after delivering her speech. In her address she talked about many things. She said, slums, housing is a fundamental right of every citizen and capitalists should not be bulldozed slums, without providing an alternate and decent housing solution to poor and fragile.
"The private sector is the road, they build fast, they build hard and they don't care about vulnerable communities“, Rehman observed, adding, Capitalists rush off on people living in kachi abadies for years. Sharing the limitations of the state, she said, it was true that many slums are illegal, and when the state tries to vacate the land, for example slums near railway tracks for transportation needs, they cannot, because the large populations have been living there for years.
"They are destitute, they are vulnerable, Please do not run bulldozers over their small and fragile homes“, Minister pleaded.
After the inaugural session, consultative meetings started, where academia, business community representatives and government departments deliberated on housing challenges in Pakistan. The event, organized jointly by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is also aimed at the portal and marketplace sectors, virtual reality, real estate software and CRM companies, builders, financing companies and real estate investment and marketing companies.
Numerous real estate marketing companies have also set up their stalls in a large designated area. Each company trying hard to sell their products in the most competitive and dead market.
It was a wrong perception, that Park View Housing Society is without ample electricity, water supply and plot prices are too high, compared to land price and facilities, said Fair Deal Marketing, Sales Executive. He insisted that the legal status of the politician Aleem Khan has been restored.
CDA had revoked the permission to Park View, on the directions of the court, over some litigation and violation of CDA by Laws. The permission has been granted after the PML-N led coalition government came in power. Aleem Khan, a close of aid of PTI Chief Imran Khan, parted ways with him, early this year, and joined Khan's staunch opponents the Sharifs. The housing project was launched in 2010 at Malot village. Its distance is only 23 kilometers from Zero Point, but the road passing through a slum-style village makes the journey tiring and up to 50 minutes long. While traveling on Park Road, security is also a major issue, especially at nights. Bahira Enclave, close to Park View, is a decent option, due to its fully developed infrastructure, wide beautiful roads and amazing landscape, but traveling from and to Islamabad is an issue, due to absence of any public transport option.
While visiting different stalls, it was observed, that there was no ready low cost housing solution for the middle class. Capital Smart City seems to be a good affordable low-cost housing option, being developed by a reputed developer, but it falls in Rawalpindi, and is around 45 kilometers from Zero Point, Islamabad. According to experts the city will be developed by 2030.
The rates of even far flung private housing communities like Park View start from Rs 5 million, and possession in the next three to five years. The private housing colonies falling in the vicinity of Tarnol, Rawat, and near the Motorway or national highways are low priced, but they require another 5-10 years to become operational and live able.
Government departments representatives said, they could not initiate any low cost housing project due to lack of funds. "To launch a low cost housing project we need funds to buy the land and start development, we don't have funding from the government nor do banks give us loans without pledging an asset", an official said.
The banks on the other hand said that house finance at lower interest rates is not a good business proposition. They said the state bank insists to give a housing loan at lower rates, just to make politicians happy.
Ministry of Housing is eyeing private sector for low cost housing solutions and private sector is interested in opportunities to mint money. Secretary, in his speech requested the business community to launch new projects, again and again, but the private sector has its own greed. "We need land for a housing society for traders, we need land to build an expo, we need representation in CDA", the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce representatives tabled their selfish demands.
During the sessions, participants discussed how to adopt safe housing practices and how to be mindful about natural disasters during the construction of houses or commercial properties. They also discussed the role of latest technologies in real estate and how technology could be used to produce low-income, safe houses for the general public. Apart from the consultative sessions, there are many stalls set where the real estate industry professionals are advising the participants about their housing needs.
The four-day event will conclude on Sunday.
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