Islamabad: While insisting the urban migration has mostly created a shortage of houses and thus, pushing house prices and rents upwards, Colonel (r) Ghulam Murtaza, managing director of the NAMALE housing society, has advocated the low-cost housing initiatives on the city’s outskirts to ease the misery of the common man without own home.
“Not long ago, this city had a small population with not-so-inadequate houses catering to it well but over the years, there has been a rapid population growth causing a serious housing shortage and higher house rates and rents. This has happened chiefly due to the arrival of the people, especially from the country’s north-western areas, in large numbers either to escape unrest or to avail themselves of better facilities,” he told reporters ahead of the three-day ABAD Expo beginning here on May 4.
Colonel (r) Ghulam Murtaza warned that the house prices would continue to increase until demand and supply were balanced and that could happen only by the establishment of more and more low-cost housing societies in the city’s environs to the relief of the middle class mostly without own shelter.
He said around two-thirds of Islamabad’s residents didn’t own housing and therefore, they rented houses and apartments. “The acute housing shortage has led to the exploitation of poor renters by property owners. I strongly feel that the launch of more and more low-cost schemes can effectively address both the housing and exploitation issues,” he said.
The NAMALE MD denied tax evasion by the country’s builders and developers and insisted that most of the people in that industry regularly paid taxes. “There may be black sheep but let me tell you emphatically that builders and developers don’t evade taxes by and large. Our association (ABAD) comprises over 1,000 builders and developers, who can’t get its membership until they’re taxpayers. Simply, you can’t survive in the industry without paying taxes,” he said.
Colonel (r) Ghulam Murtaza asked the government to incentivise builders and developers to help meet the country’s growing housing needs. “After agriculture, the real estate is the second major contributor to the country’s economic growth. I'd rather call it the new backbone of our economy and therefore, the government should offer those associated with it, especially builders and developers, facilitation and more and more incentives to generate massive economic activity and create jobs for national progress,” he said.
The NAMALE MD said his housing society, which stood in the leafy Phulgaran area on the way to the nearby Murree hill station and was only a 25-minute drive from the capital’s centre point, offered custom-designed villas and apartments.
He said the NAMALE would go into the development phase within a month or so with the apartments and villas likely to be ready for marketing and sale in the next three years. “With every aspect of NAMALE residences thoroughly designed – from verified flooring, ornate lobby to even the water treatment plant, we promise the people a perfect, sustainable living. It’s simply a beautiful haven ideally located in the leafy suburbs of Islamabad yet close to the urban life,” he said.
