Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) Chairman Lt Gen (r) Anwar Ali Hyder said on Friday that six commercial banks that form the consortium for financing PM’s Naya Pakistan Housing Programme would start giving loans from next week under the guidelines devised by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Anwar Ali Hyder, while addressing a seminar on “Opportunities in Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme for Members of Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD)” via video link from Islamabad, said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team were making strenuous efforts to boost housing and construction sector in the country while ensuring convenient availability of soft loans and land required in building low-cost houses, fulfilling the lifelong dream of a common man to have his/her own shelter.
The banks were facing problems in providing soft financing for the houses on a low interest rate but the government had taken drastic steps to ensure the provision house-financing loans at 5 to 7 per cent interest rates.
The lending banks would get a number of incentives and I hope that banks designated for this housing programme would start introducing their products next week, he added.
ABAD Chairman Mohsin Sheikhani said Pakistan was facing shortage of more than 12 million houses and ABAD was working on countering this problem by providing low-cost affordable houses for the last seven years.
ABAD had provided information of low-cost housing schemes to Prime Minister Imran Khan and he had taken this initiative as part of his election manifesto. Now, he is taking serious steps to fulfill his promise to provide five million low-cost houses to the masses of the country.
Naya Pakistan Housing Task Force Chairman Ziagham Rizvi said after taking in-depth presentation on housing and construction sector, and 72 allied industries, the prime minister had firmly decided to boost the construction industry as this was the only industry which had potential of providing enormous amount of jobs to skilled and unskilled workforce along with shelter to the people.
He said that Pakistan’s banks had provided only Rs106 billion housing loans over the last 70 years which is only 0.23 per cent of gross domestic product. Now, the government had carved out 10-year housing plan.
Federal Board of Revenue Former Chairman Shabbar Zaidi said the construction of low-cost houses was possible only when housing financing was available at very nominal interest rates. It would be practical and yielding to provide house financing and land free of cost for the success of Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, he said.
Karachi Development Authority (KDA) Director General Asif Ikram said that KDA was ready for joint venture with builders and developers for low-cost housing schemes.
“We are trying to provide free land for Naya Pakistan Housing scheme in Sindh,” he said.
Habib Bank Limited Head of Islamic Finance Salimullah Shaikh and Meezan Bank General Manager Tanveer Hussain said that banks were ready to provide 80 per cent financing for low-cost housing schemes on low interest rates.
Sindh Building Control Authority Director General Ashkar Dawar said he would provide approvals of building plans within 10 days on submission of complete documents and formalities and assured all possible cooperation in executing the projects.
