Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that his government has identified housing as a priority area and is therefore planning to provide 500,000 units during the next five years to overcome the housing shortfall. He added that his government’s “Mera Ghar” scheme introduced in 1997 was a move to provide this basic necessity to lower and lower middle class families.
The Prime Minister said this while meeting a delegation of the Turkish Housing Authority led by H.E. Erdogan Bayraktar, Minister for Environment and Urbanization, Government of Turkey. Minister Finance Mr. Ishaq Dar, Mr. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, CM Punjab, Minister of State for Housing Barrister Usman Ibrahim, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Mr. Tariq Fatemi also attended the meeting.
The Premier expressed the confidence to take the bilateral relations with Turkey to new heights and work for promoting and strengthening the economic and trade relations. He said that his government would benefit from Turkey’s Mass Housing Program wherein low cost housing facility for the poor families could be provided.
The Prime Minister was briefed by the Turkish delegation that Turkey has devised a revenue sharing model according to which 15 % of their housing stock is diverted towards “Revenue Generation” and the remaining 85% towards “Social Housing”. The “Social Housing” scheme comprises of two main components wherein firstly; the land is provided by the government and secondly; a flexible payment schedule is offered according to affordability. “We will study the financial model and visit on ground the housing schemes developed in rural and urban areas in Turkey during my forthcoming visit”, said the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister thanked the Turkish delegation and said that he is looking forward to the upcoming visit to Turkey where Pak-Turkey bilateral relations would further strengthen. Senior officials of the Prime Minster’s Office, Turkish Government and Government of Punjab also attended the meeting.
Govt to build 500,000 housing units in five years to overcome shortfall: PM
