The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Architects, urban planners and experts at a meeting in the city said population increase rate in Dhaka city is 4.34 per cent per year and five lakh people are being added to the population of the city annually.

To accommodate these new people the city needs one lakh dwelling units every year. Due to various constraints supply is far behind the demand, they said.

Dhaka city needs 25 lakh dwelling units, but there are 2.25 lakh residential buildings where 20 to 30 lakh people are accommodated. Dhaka city has very inadequate road networks, which are only 8 to 10 per cent of the total city area, whereas the acceptable ratio is about 25 per cent, they added.

In Bangladesh, at the time of property handover registration cost is higher than any other country of the world, they said.

They recommended that to mitigate the housing problem we have to solve its associated problems like land, construction materials, finance and technology, as they are associated with housing. So availability of aforementioned materials has to be assured at low price in order to ease up housing problems.

The price of per bag cement has increased three times in last 20 years, they said.

Accountability of all concerned personnel has been fixed in the new Dhaka Metropolitan Building Construction Rules as such all concerned people will be more accountable for their respective responsibilities. Special arrangement has been made in the new rule to widen the narrow roads to at least 20-feet. As a result, old Dhaka will be more accessible and liveable in due course. But for last five or six months no significant number of building plans has been approved. This will create housing crisis in coming years, they added.

The view exchange meeting on 'Potential of Housing Industry and Its Future' was held at a city hotel yesterday organised by Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB).

Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, addressed the meeting as chief guest, while KAM Haroon, Chairman of RAJUK, Md Abdul Qayyum, Chairman of National Housing Authority, Dr Hasib Md Ahsan, Professor of Dept of Civil Engineering and Ishrat Islam, Asstt Professor of Dept of Urban and Regional Planning of BUET, Mukarram Hussain Khan, President of REHAB, Kazi Anisuddin Iqbal, Editor of Sthapattya O Nirman, among others, spoke. Dr Toufiq M Seraj, President of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, presented key-note paper.

Speakers said available housing loan in Bangladesh has high interest rate, which is 14 to 16 per cent. But in developed countries interest rate of housing loan is three to six per cent. Even this rate is 8 to 10 per cent in our neighbouring countries.

"Bangladesh Bank has initiated to provide housing loan at 10 per cent interest rate. But the fund is very limited. So only a few families will get the facility. One cannot avail loan of more than Tk 15 lakh, which is not enough to buy an apartment at the present market rate," key-note paper said.

To meet the increasing housing requirement, private real estate companies emerged and the number of real estate companies was increasing gradually. At present, more than 450 companies are active in business. At present there are 336 members of REHAB, speakers said.

In Bangladesh, during registration we have to pay five per cent gain tax and stamp duty, 2.5 per cent registration fee, two per cent city corporation charge and sub-registry office expenditure 0.5 per cent. The collective registration cost is 15 per cent of the registration value. During building or apartment registration the developer pays Tk 250 per square metre as an advance income tax. It is to pay 1.5 per cent VAT on apartment price which also increases apartment price in this high priced market, the paper said.