ABAD, government is committed to solve housing crisis
Constructors and developers are satisfied with the pace of construction and progress happening in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but are worried about the slow pace of developments taking place in Sindh.
Pakistan is facing a shortage of 12m houses and the annual demand is estimated at 0.4m houses. Private builders and developers are constructing 0.15m units a year, which means a shortfall of 0.25m houses annually.
Builders and developers are encountering issues in getting approval for building plans in Sindh due to numerous reasons. However, work in other parts of the country, especially Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has begun.
In April, the government had announced a relief package of Rs100 billion for the construction sector which was to be followed by the building of five million houses under the NPHP. Under this package, builders were bound to register their projects on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) portal called Iris by Dec 31 and complete the grey structure by Sept 22.
Giving an overall picture of the registration of projects on the FBR portal, Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) Chairman Fayyaz Ilyas claimed that more than 300 projects have been registered with NPHP and under the special package for the construction industry. “We are expecting that by Dec 31, this number will be more than 500. This will lead to more than Rs600 billion investment,” he said.
ABAD Chairman said that this is the first time in the history of Pakistan that a government has taken the right steps to deal with the housing problems. Moreover, developing steps have been taken by the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government as they have changed their stringent laws which assist builders and developers in getting approvals easily. However, builders are facing problems in Sindh and the federal government could do little to remove bottlenecks because of the 18th Amendment.