Pakistan, being the most urbanised countries in South Asia, is faced by many mighty challenges at a national and a global level, which are having an adverse impact on its economic, physical and social systems. One of the grave challenge seen nowadays is of the poor housing inadequacy, affordability & quality. According to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Pakistan is eighth among the ten countries having substandard housing across the globe. At present about 10 million housing backlog exists which is getting added up every year. The State Bank of Pakistan has also estimated a substantial shortfall of housing units in the country, that implies an almost 78% of the total housing shortage by 2035.
This situation of increased burden on the demand and supply of housing is most likely to get aggravated without possible solutions. Given that, it has become need of the hour to address this big issue which lie within the housing sector of Pakistan, for bringing socio-economic upliftment and paving its way towards a progressively stable democratic country. To jumpstart the housing sector, the current Government of Pakistan has come up with a bold initiative under the agenda of the Naya Pakistan Housing Program to improve the poor housing condition in the country. Seeing it as the most immediate challenge for scaling up the economy, the program is intended to provide 5 million houses for the poor across the country with constructing 10 00 000 houses per year, equipped with basic facilities and regularization of the slums/katchi abadis. Along with utilizing the expertise of both public and private sectors, the program intends to invite innovative strategies from across the world to expedite the provision of adequate and better housing in Pakistan in its true soul and spirit.
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