ISLAMABAD: The Plan­ning Commission has failed to utilise the World Bank’s technical assistance of $5 million approved in 2018 for capacity building for housing policy and analytics as part of Pakistan Housing Finance project, and this assistance is now expected to be allocated to the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.

It is learnt that the World Bank has received multiple requests from the federal government for technical support for implementing the ambitious housing programme.

The Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority appears to be the most likely and viable recipient of these technical assistance funds.

Now that the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority Act has been passed by parliament, the technical assistance funds may be reallocated to it. However, any reallocation of funds to a new implementing agency would also require the World Bank to evaluate the capacity of the new agency as part of the standard due diligence procedures, a report of the World Banks says.

The World Bank had approved $145 million for Pakistan Housing Finance project in March 2018 to expand home ownership through access to affordable housing finance in Pakistan.

The report says that the implementation of the housing finance project has been progressing satisfactorily. More than 90 per cent of the project amount has been disbursed within 18 months of the project effectiveness.

The report says that the World Bank is ready to support the government in the housing programme. However, for the bank’s additional support to be viable, certain prerequisites will need to be met. Since the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Act has gone through all requisite parliamentary approvals, rules and regulations underpinning its operations should be fast-tracked, ideally by April 2020, suggests the bank report.

The technical assistance funds must be mobilised at the earliest and the housing authority must start working to commence the process for reallocation in March. The Risk Sharing Facility (RSF) should be operationalised and progress must be made on regulating builders.

There should be robust pipeline of housing projects under the housing programme to demonstrate an increase in affordable housing supply; and Pakistan Mortgage Refinancing Company should undertake a capital markets transaction to demonstrate its market viability, before June 2020, the report suggested.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2020