Business Desk :
Speakers at a dialogue suggested that housing be declared as a thrust sector to make it an engine of growth to ensure affordable housing for all, especially for lower-income groups.
Both private and public sectors need to work together under partnership model to build enabling environment for development of housing sector with affordable financing, they said.
The speakers also said Bangladesh can follow and learn from other countries to replicate their successful affordable housing projects in the country.
They were addressing a virtual dialogue hosted by Policy Research Institute (PRI) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Thursday.
The fifth edition of the housing roundtable series styled ‘Supply of Affordable Housing’ is an IFC initiative.
It is part of an ongoing housing roundtable series on rebuilding the post-Covid economy through housing finance and construction.
Speaking as the chief guest, state minister for planning Dr Shamsul Alam says the government’s main role will be to act as an enabler rather than a provider of housing.
The government is working to modernise the legal and regulatory framework by computerising land records, improving efficiency of recording, registration and mapping of house ownerships and transactions.
Alam says the government will help create efficient housing market through continuously assessing housing demand and supply, and collecting, analysing and disseminating information about it on a regular basis.
It will also try to improve mechanism for financing housing and stimulating efficiency and dynamism of mortgage market by ensuring a level-playing field, reforming land records administration and regulatory environment and restructuring Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation.
The government will support development of appropriate building materials and technologies and research, the state minister further says.
“Extending housing loans to financial institutions, vulnerable and disadvantage group, low-income groups and people living in poverty is also the government’s to-do list for affordable housing.”
Alam says financial institutions will be broadened particularly for the provision of small loans.
Undertaking programmes for physical improvement of slums in the form of settlements that will greatly facilitate integration of the settlements with a wider urban area and also improve residents’ quality of life.
“To address backlog in housing supply, we’re encouraging PPP model to go with,” Alam mentioned.
The government can release land for PPP projects for lower and lower middle-income people, he says, adding that the National Housing Authority’s role be enhanced.
PRI executive director Ahsan H Mansur says housing in Bangladesh can play a real engine of growth in future.
“We have to look at it from that angle that it is not just housing people to live in,” he adds.
Mansur suggested that housing be declared as a thrust sector to ensure growth momentum.
IFC country manager (Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal) Martin Holtmann says market potential of Bangladesh is huge and astounding.
The current financing gap is $16 billion, and the demand for 11-million units of new homes by 2030 and investment opportunity almost $200 billion which are massive potential, he adds.
Holtmann further says that the IFC can work in developing an affordable housing PPP model.
“We have done that in at least 10 other countries,” he said, adding that the PPP model needs to be robust and replicable.
Holtmann says they can help financing and holding workshops for stakeholders as well.
World Bank senior urban economist Yan F Zhang speaks about six key elements-land, urban planning, infrastructure, construction material, developer and end use financing and subsidies for home buyers.
She suggests that the government create an enabling environment for developing a market to work.
The enabling market conditions will entail reducing formal housing costs, boosting housing demand through access to finance at affordable rates.
Zhang recognises the need for a comprehensive approach which will entail city planning and building regulation, access to land and infrastructure construction and building materials.
She also shows examples of the World Bank-funded housing projects in Morocco, Indonesia and India that Bangladesh may follow.
Thomas Lubeck, regional manager, PPP Transaction Advisory Services, South Asia and East Asia Pacific, IFC, Rajuk town planner Ashraful Islam, Vivek Sharma, principal and fund manager, Tamil Nadu Shelter Fund, India, Sumeet Shukla, investment officer, PPP Transaction Advisory Services, and Mashid Rahman, managing director of Rangs Properties Ltd also spoke.
