Islamabad: The Naya Pakistan Housing Authority (NPHA) has announced the construction of 20 million single story houses under the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme — to be built within the rural areas of Punjab, according to a news source. As per the publication, the authority expects to build both houses and flats in the major cities of the province.
Speaking at the Pakistan Innovative Finance Forum, NPHA’s senior member Brig. Ihsan Ullah said that Pakistan is short of 12 million houses and that the country was failing to meet even half of this demand. However, he added that the government was keen on reducing the population load within the cities through the construction of 2 million low-cost NPHP houses in the rural areas —out of the total 5 million such houses planned for development under the programme.
Additionally, he also shared the government’s plan to finance the project. This will involve the development of commercial markets, plazas and shopping malls in its second phase, that may be sold for additional funds.
Brig. Ihsan went on to share the details regarding the houses that have been planned for development in the rural areas. The structures are expected to span an area of 650 square feet to 900 square feet, with a price between PKR 600,000 to PKR 700,000. He further revealed that the prices had been set so low because the value of the land in rural areas was much more affordable as compared to the urban areas.
In the cites, a PKR 2.6 million house or flat will be offered for PKR 1.3 million, with the remaining amount to be subsidized by the government. This has been done in order to compensate for the higher land values of properties located in cities.
Talking about how the government will manage to complete such a mega project that is proving to be so expensive, Brig Ihsan Ullah revealed that negotiations with various international funding organisations were currently underway, as part of the efforts made by the authorities to arrange the additional funds required for this significant undertaking.
