Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Naya Pakistan Housing & Development Authority's project Farash Town Apartments to review Construction Work

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Islamabad:  Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority's project Farash Town Apartments in Islamabad today to review construction work. The Prime Minister had performed ground-breaking of the project earlier in April this year, and the construction work is underway at a fast pace.

As many as 4400 apartments are being built under the housing project at Farash Town Islamabad. The project is being executed by NAPHDA in collaboration with FWO and CDA. It will be completed over a period of two years. Out of the 4,400 apartments, 2,000 will be allotted to members registered with NAPHDA. Out of the remaining apartments, 2000 will be sold out in the open market, while 400 will be allocated for the residents of 'kachi abadis'.

During the visit, the Prime Minister was briefed on the progress of the work. “No government in the past cared for the low-income segment of the society, who had no shelter,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said after visiting the construction site at Farash Town.

In his address, the Prime Minister regretted that the previous governments did not pay heed to the basic needs of people including affordable housing. He said the banks were asked to provide mortgages to the people to help them construct a house of their choice. He pointed that currently, the mortgage facility in India was 10 per cent, 30 per cent in Malaysia 30, while it was around 80 per cent in the West. However, in Pakistan, it was zero and it took two years to make foreclosure laws of banks aimed at facilitating the general public in the construction of houses. He said the government, besides undertaking the construction was also providing a subsidy of Rs 300,000 for each house and providing loans at a very small markup. A sum of Rs 30 billion has been allocated for this purpose, he added. “It is our effort that the people have to pay less every month, almost equivalent to what they pay for monthly rent,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the markup subsidy scheme; offered long term housing finance of up to 20 years, on as low as 2% service charges for the first five years to the low-income people. The middle-income people can get housing finance for 5 Marla houses on 5% markup for the first five years and for 10 Marla houses on 7% markup for the first five years. A sum of Rs 35 billion has been allocated for the first phase of this scheme.

He said the government offered 90 per cent exemption on taxes on the construction sector and said despite the negative impact of Covid19 all over the world, Pakistan was one of the few countries as it kept its construction sector open and the people had an opportunity to earn their livelihood. He said the banks have applications in process amounting to around Rs 226 billion, while the cases for Rs 90 billion have been approved, and Rs 24 billion has been disbursed.

He said currently 100,000 houses were under construction, it took almost two years to put in place a structure that can take up this difficult task, the number would significantly increase in the year ahead, as now the system is in place.