Housing and Physical Planning

c) Housing building loans

Loans for building and house improvement: Government loans for building and house improvement are available. These loans are given by the HBFC to plot or house owners. However, access to these loans is denied to a large majority of the rural population because:

  • most house owners in the rural areas do not have ownership papers for the houses they live in, although their right to their property is recognised by the village community;
  • the process of acquiring a loan is long and cumbersome, and apart from bureaucratic red tapism, involves catering to corruption and nepotism. Thus, only the affluent, or those close to them, can make use of these schemes;
  • the recovery of the loan also poses problems and there is a very high percentage of default. If this continues the programme cannot possibly continue without the government writing off these loans.
  • Rural house improvement loans: This is one of the government’s credit schemes for additions and improvements to existing stock. However, for its success it is essential that a system of loan recovery must be developed through a pilot project so that funds are available for its continuation and growth. It has been noted that recovery is better if a community or group, rather than an individual, is involved in the loan giving and the recovery process.

6. Support Systems to Housing

6.1 Credit

Formal credit for housing, as mentioned earlier, is available only from the HBFC through mortgage financing against land. However, the vast majority of Pakistani households live in informal settlements on in rural areas where formal ownership documents for houses have traditionally not being considered necessary. This excludes them from the credit facilities available with the HBFC. In addition, the HBFC procedures are long and cumbersome and are more easily available to the affluent and well placed. Thus, HBFC caters only to 20 percent of the formal housing market and does not cater at all to the informal market.
The HBFC gives loans to individuals only. It does not give loans to NGOs, cooperatives or agencies involved in housing. In addition, it does not give small short term loans such as for Rs 5,000 for a period of one year. These loans are the sort that low income families require to improve their houses and not the Rs 20,000 long term loans that the HBFC provides.

6.2 Employer built housing

There are rules and regulations concerning the provision of housing to employees of formal sector and government organizations, however, these rules and regulations are not implemented although most organisations do give house rent to their employees.

6.3 Training and development of skills

With the end of the hereditary artisanal system there has been a sharp decline in the quality of building skills. There has been no attempt to study the problems related to the development of skills nor has there been the development of appropriate programmes for training people. Unless professionals related to the construction industry involve themselves in this process it is unlikely that skills, and hence housing quality, would improve. The low income groups are the worst hit by this problem as the most inefficient artisans work for them since their wages are more afford-able than those of the better trained artisans.

6.4 Technical advice cells

Due to the disappearance of traditional building materials and skills, new materials and technologies are increasingly being used for house construction. In addition, changes in life-style have also brought about changes in the design of houses and functions within the house. However, there are no advisory services available to the house builder regarding design, technology or construction. NGO programmes which have this component have shown that housing design and quality can improve considerably if such an advisory service is available.

6.5 Research organisations

There are a number of research organisations in Pakistan such as the PCSIR, ATDO, Building Research Centres, Pakistan Standard’s Institute etc. However, the work done by these organisations on technology and materials remains confined to their demonstration yards and libraries. Since this work has not been preceded by a study of market conditions and sociological and economic realities, its extension to communities, informal sector operators and/or formal sector developers, does not take place and it in no way effects the housing situation in the country.

7. The Nature of Physical Planning in Pakistan

7.1 Housing as a product and not a process

Housing has been seen by Pakistani policy planners and private formal sector entrepreneurs as a product (and/or each component of it as separate product) and not an on-going process whose various components they should support and facilitate. This approach is capital intensive, and given the lack of financial resources, its scale has been insignificant. In addition, due to its high costs and sophisticated standards and marketing procedures, it is incompatible with the culture, sociology and economics of low income and lower middle income groups, who form the vast majority of the target population.

7.2 Who plans for whom?

Formal sector physical planning in Pakistan is done by professionals who have been educated on the western model and apply First World standards, technology and procedures. In addition, they operate through institutions that are also structured on the First World model. There has been no action research to develop standards and concepts based on local social and cultural needs and appropriate delivery systems. Some of the results of this type of planning are given below.

  1. Planning is for the automobile, even in neighbourhoods where people are unlikely to have one.
  2. Neighbourhoods have through traffic through them, creating insecurity especially among women and children.
  3. The creation of a mohallah, which is an essential part of Pakistani culture, is not facilitated by planners through physical plans and evolves in spite of layouts hostile to its development.
  4. Infrastructure standards and building bye-laws again conflict with the social, cultural and economic realities and physical requirements of the majority of house builders and/or the resources of the local government. Hence, they are either not followed at all (this is made possible through institutionalised corruption), or people are inconvenienced because of their application.
  5. The indoor climate of the house is not taken into account in the design phase, in the vast majority of cases. In the same way, nor does the neighbourhood and/or house design and use of materials facilitate garbage disposal and/or indoor and outdoor hygiene. In addition, design and choice of materials and systems seldom take subsequent 0&M into consideration due to which almost all housing deteriorates rapidly.
  6. A large number of settlements in Pakistan are washed away by floods every year and many, less frequently, are destroyed by earthquakes. People are not trained (or made aware) to deal with these calamities or how to protect their houses from them.
  7. Planning is done by men, or by women, trained in the same First World tradition as men. However, it is women who spend most of their time in homes, bring up their children in the settlements and look after the house. Their needs have not been the subject of research or study and the awareness that they matter does not exist among the planners and policy makers. In addition, houses are almost invariably owned exclusively by men, and women as such can become homeless ‘legally’ if a marriage is terminated.

One Comment

  1. Salam .dear we have no basic facilities in housning colonies plz think about us plz plz

    Posted January 1, 2020 at 9:09 am | PermalinkReply

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