KARACHI: Realtors, builders and developers are generally very clear about what to expect once a new setup signs in: more of the same! There will be a new government, they say, but it is likely to comprise mostly “chips of the old block”. This, however, makes them a worried lot because, according to them, the shortage of housing units has already touched alarming proportions — over 10 million units — and a continuation of policies would only make it worse.

Babar Mirza Chugtai, the newly-elected chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan, regrets that past governments never fulfilled their pledge of providing housing facilities to the masses “even though it is top responsibility”.

Bureaucratic hurdles coupled with cartelisation and monopolistic trends, he says, are playing havoc with the prices of construction material, while the absence of any effective regulatory mechanism discourages builders in the organised sector to play the game by the rules, thus resulting in exploitation at the hands of mafias that continue to make hey.

Instead of encouraging and facilitating the private sector, the KBCA, he contends, is bent upon creating hurdles by imposing various new levies besides introducing cumbersome procedures for allotment which together was a discouraging factor for potential investors.

The Monopoly Control Authority (MCA), which has since been renamed as the Competition Commission, has been a silent spectator to the rising cost of raw material, he regrets, arguing that people in the lower and middle classes cannot own a house unless red-tapism in the bureaucracy is done away with. “When the political parties have not even mentioned any steps in their manifestos about getting rid of this red tape, how can the housing industry have any hope in this regard,” he wonders.

None of the political parties in the past did anything serious to arrest the housing shortage. Instead they were more keen on serving their own vested interests. The massive inflow of remittances in the wake of 9/11, he points out, also played havoc with the prices of real estate which almost quadrupled in the last five years. Citing an example, he says a 500-yard plot in DHA Phase 8 now costs Rs 9-9.5 million as compared to about Rs900,000 back in 2002. Who will arrest this trend, he asks.

Khan Zubair Shaheen, owner of Pak Estate at Clifton, goes a step further, calling all political parties as nothing but “bunch of plunderers”. Hawksbay Scheme No. 42, he recalls, was launched almost 35 years back in the Bhutto era, but no proper utility and infrastructure work was ever taken up there.

No different is the case with the low-cost housing scheme which was announced by the PML-N government, he says, adding that the real estate business is in need of sincere people and it should not be left at the mercy of speculators and manipulators.

“Karachi has plenty of land and it can be developed if the rulers show seriousness, but all political parties have had their share of power and there is little to expect from them,” he grumbles. “How can you expect ruling businessmen to work for the common man when they are just sitting at the helm, protecting their own interest and multiplying their fortunes by evolving policies suited to their own business interests?” — M.K.