Islamabad
\nA high-level meeting on affordable housing finance schemes was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, to address the critical challenges faced in long-term housing finance and explore viable policy models for low-cost housing in Pakistan.
\nThe meeting was attended by Planning Secretary Awais Manzoor Sumra, Vice Chancellor of PIDE Nadeem Javed, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, CEOs of private banks, and representatives from PMRC and Nationwide Bank of Pakistan.
\nThe participants reviewed international best practices and mortgage models from countries including Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Bangladesh, Brazil, and India. Discussions focused on designing a practical and sustainable housing finance framework tailored to Pakistan\u2019s socio-economic landscape. The Minister Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that the unavailability of long-term housing finance remains one of the country\u2019s most significant barriers to affordable housing. He recalled substantial progress made in 2017-18, which was unfortunately disrupted by political instability.
\n\u201cWhen policy continuity is lacking, the public bears the cost,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Highlighting the success of auto-leasing models in the private sector, the Minister questioned why a similar model could not be implemented for housing. \u201cMillions of people live their entire lives in rented homes. Owning a house should not be a distant dream for the salaried class,\u201d he said, adding that \u201ca two to three crore home cannot be built through lump-sum payments by an average income earner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahsan Iqbal advocated for a housing finance framework similar to auto-leasing, backed by mortgages and supported by government policy. He stressed the government\u2019s responsibility to facilitate this through guarantees and regulatory support. \u201cThe government is ready to offer 100% guarantees to banks to ensure the security of their capital,\u201d he announced.<\/p>\n
The Planning Ministry\u2019s proposed financial framework was presented by Member Infrastructure Waqas Anwar. It was acknowledged that the Punjab government is also launching its own housing rollout program.
\nIn order to streamline legal and regulatory aspects, the Planning Ministry will engage with the Federal Minister for Law, Mr. Azam Nazeer Tarar.<\/p>\n
The Minister called on private banks to adopt a market-based housing finance model without fear, assuring full government support. \u201cCreating an easy housing finance framework is not rocket science. Successful models exist worldwide, and we must adapt them to our context,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also proposed targeted government subsidies for smaller housing units\u2014such as Three-Marla homes\u2014while allowing banks to independently design frameworks for larger units (ten Marla and above).
\n\u201cThis initiative can trigger a transformative shift in Pakistan\u2019s housing sector, while significantly contributing to economic growth, infrastructure development, and social uplift,\u201d said Ahsan Iqbal.<\/p>\n
Private banks responded positively to the proposals, expressing willingness to collaborate in designing a practical financing framework for affordable housing.
\n\u201cThis is not just a policy initiative\u2014it is a national economic and social imperative,\u201d concluded the Minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad A high-level meeting on affordable housing finance schemes was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, to address the critical challenges faced in long-term housing finance and explore viable policy models for low-cost housing in Pakistan. The meeting was attended by Planning Secretary Awais Manzoor Sumra, Vice Chancellor …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":73086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80938,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80923\/revisions\/80938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}