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The Capital Development Authority has announced the construction of 4,400 low-cost housing units in Islamabad. During the meeting, held with chaired by Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed, it was decided that the construction will take place in the Alipur Farash area. This is in line with the government’s vision of providing affordable housing to people. To this effect, Prime Minister Imran Khan has introduced a number of initiatives for low-cost housing under NPHP, which is Pakistan’s flagship project, Naya Pakistan Housing Program, NPHP.
In a recent meeting at the Capital Development Authority (CDA) a number of development projects were also discussed for NPHP beneficiaries. During the meeting, city officials announced new plans for low-cost housing in Islamabad.
The provision of low-cost housing was one of the covenants of PM Khan’s election manifesto, and new policies being introduced are in line with this promise. This is the first time that Pakistan’s government has introduced low-cost housing in collaboration with the provincial government.
Low-cost Housing in Islamabad: An Overview
The apartments will be allotted to displaced persons of katchi abadis through the CDA and the beneficiaries of Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority through auction. At the meeting, a basic timeline for establishing and recruiting 200 officials for Islamabad’s first-ever metropolitan force was also established. The board members highlighted that the new force will guide citizens in public places while keeping the environment safe.
The CDA board members also deliberated on the construction of three new roads to readjust the Ministry of Defence’s logistics route. The construction work of these will be carried through the Ministry’s Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) or the National Logistics Cell (NLC).
The CDA members have officially filed their recommendations, work on which will start after final review from the federal cabinet. The CDA expects the new projects to commence during the next months.
Government Introduces Low-Cost Housing Under NPHP
Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled the NPHP in October 2019. As per the announcement, in the first phase, the government decided to start the NPHP in seven districts, including Sukkur, Quetta, Gilgit, Muzaffarabad, Swat, Islamabad, and Faisalabad, with an aim to construct a total five million houses for the low-income strata of the society during next five years.
During July 2020, NPHP entered its implementation phase as the project’s groundbreaking ceremony was held at Hazro town of Attock. On the occasion, Malik Amin Aslam, the advisor to the prime minister on Climate Change, who performed the groundbreaking ceremony, gave details of the project. This will span 400 kanal and comprise 658 plots that include 90 plots of 10 marla each, 64 plots of 7 marla each,189 plots of 5 marlas each, and 400 plots of 3 marlas each. It was announced that the plots will be given to the people through the ballot and on merit.
In December 2020, the governing body of LDA approved the construction of 4,000 residential units for PKR 10 billion in the first phase of the LDA City Naya Pakistan Apartments project. This included the announcement that apartments would be constructed on 563 Kanal of land at Haloki village within a year and that 125 blocks of four-story apartments, each comprising 32 residential units, would be built in the first phase.
Moreover, details of the project were also announced. This is a key initiative by the Pakistan government to house more people in the country. It is an attempt to house the homeless, and studies have shown that providing affordable housing has economic benefits for a country as well. Therefore, this initiative is greatly revered and all eyes are now waiting to see it is completed soon. The next stages include construction and allotment and we will keep updating you as the work progresses.
More Initiatives To Keep Low-Cost Housing Afloat
The public and private sectors of the country have offered 189 sites to build low-cost housing units to provide affordable accommodation under NPHP.
As per the details, out of these, 57 sites have been offered by private sectors to build around 104,912 houses and 132 sites have been offered by the government sectors which are being evaluated. So far, the government has received over two million applications, out of which 1.8 million are eligible, while a total of 6,769 houses have been completed under various schemes.
The FGEHA has also launched low-cost housing projects under the NPHP in various localities including Kashmir Avenue, G-13, Islamabad, Skyline Apartments, New Airport, Islamabad, Chaklala Heights, Chaklala Scheme-III Rawalpindi, Sky Garden Scheme, Bara Kahu, Islamabad and Life Style Residency, Bedian Road, Lahore.
To execute these housing schemes, documents have been prepared by Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) under service regulations-2020, PPP regulations-2020, procurement regulations-2020, negotiated procurement for PPP schemes on private land, approval of interest rate subsidy and cost subsidy on housing units and others.
The NAPHDA has proposed an escrow account for routing all transfers and payments, including the payment of a cost subsidy of Rs300,000 for a low-cost housing unit. The NAPHDA through the cabinet division has submitted new proposals to ECC pertaining to eligibility criteria, modalities for payment of cost subsidy, payment of cost subsidy on behalf of the allottees, and other entities like Workers Welfare Fund.
A proper procedural framework has been outlined under NAPHDA for its operations to streamline the entire process.
What Will NAPHDA Do For Low-Cost Housing Under NPHP
The NAPHDA will share the list of applicants who fulfil the eligibility criteria with the bank(s) for their credit assessment.
Then the banks will select applicants for extending financing based on their selection criteria and share the list with NAPHDA, which will then ballot the list of eligible/willing applicants shared by banks to select allottees and share the list back with banks.
Then the banks will process/sign loan agreement(s)/document(s) with eligible borrowers for providing a loan equal to the cost of the housing, and collect the amount contributed by the borrower as a down payment. The banks will then provide a list of borrowers to NAPHDA.
The NAPHDA will submit a Sanction Letter (along with approved applicants/allottee(s) borrowers to the Finance Division for the release of subsidy funds which will be PKR 30,000 per allottee/borrower.
Finance Division under the Expenditure Wing will endorse a Sanction Letter to Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) which will then issue Sealed Authority of the sanctioned amount in favor of the participating bank for crediting to the Project Account which is also known as the Escrow Account.
This is the latest update on Naya Pakistan Housing Program. Also check out our analytical pieces:
– Analyzing fiscal side of NPHP
For any queries, write to us at blog@zameen.com. Also, keep checking Pakistan’s largest property blog, Zameen Blog, for all the latest news on property.
