Development of a Sustainable System for Provision of Affordable Housing in Major Cities of Pakistan

Abstract

Housing is a basic need of the human being for privacy, safety and protection. Globally housing is considered affordable if accessible within 20% to 40% of gross monthly household income. Sustainable affordable housing can be defined as establishment of housing neighborhood which satisfies shelter needs by making the neighborhood physically accessible, socially acceptable, economically affordable and environmentally sustainable and at the same time protects and preserves nature for future generations. Almost all the developing countries are facing a shortage of sustainable affordable housing. Many countries have adopted various approaches to mitigate the space between demand and supply of affordable housing and some of them have become successful like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Pakistan is among the top ten populous countries however facing severe shortage of affordable housing. World Bank has revealed very little research in Pakistan on affordable housing. National Housing Policy 2001, although pointed out that Pakistan’s urban sector is facing a housing crisis due to scarcity of land, rapidly increasing land prices, increasing number of low-income people and costly building materials, etc., but this policy has been failed to give a suitable solution to mitigate the increasing gap between demand and supply of affordable housing for low-income people. In Pakistan, to address the housing issue, many approaches have been adopted and some of them were useful like Mera Ghar, Ashiana, Katchi abadis Improvement Programmes, Core-Housing, Community Participation, Sites-and-Services Schemes for the Low-Income Group and Incremental Housing, etc. but inconsistencies of the public policies impeded to achieve desired targets. Commercial banks failed to provide housing finance to the low-income group in Pakistan due to high mark up and concerns on return of money. The House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), which later became House Building Finance Company Limited, came into existence to cater the needs of low and lower-middle-income segments of the population throughout the country. There are 10 cities of Pakistan with a population of over one million; however, the study was conducted in five major cities of Pakistan, i.e., Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi and Islamabad because the first four xvi cities are the first are provincial and fifth is federal capital. A random sampling technique was used to collect the data. In this study, the approaches adopted by various developing and developed countries have been studied through literature review and lessons have been drawn for Pakistan. Primary and secondary data have been collected from the field, various departments and the literature. The extent of affordable housing, house condition, and access to infrastructure facilities has been explored. The role of public departments in the development control assessing the future housing demands of the city in the coming years has also been studied. The financial institutions engaged in providing services to the housing sector and their policies and strategies have critically been examined and compared. The general public's satisfaction with the approaches adopted by various public and private departments has been assessed through field surveys. The data collected has been edited and analyzed using computer software SPSS The results have been expressed in tables and cross tables. In the light of the research findings, appropriate measures besides a framework to provide affordable housing in urban areas of Pakistan have been suggested. The study's findings have the potential of introducing a new paradigm shift from a conventional housing system to a Sustainable Affordable Housing System. This research has provided a new body of knowledge in sustainable, affordable housing and keeps the potential to open new vistas for further research on the subject.