A home truth about Karachi builders

• Contractors fail to deliver houses, flats despite timely instalments 

House is the third basic need of human beings, but in the absence of laws and regulations for the builders, thousands of people are running after them to take possession of their flats in Karachi and other big cities of Pakistan.

“Most of the builders have taken money during the constructions of the flats or before it with a promise to handover the said flat in three to five years, but most of the builders failed to provide their properties in 7 to 10 years or above,” said flat owners in Karachi.

The investment of billion of rupee of people is in doldrums as they have no approach to the builders of the said projects and the area police do not cooperate them for their rights.

The small builders, who launched their projects with an investment of the land, award selling contract of the flats to marketing companies to arrange the money for the construction. In the middle of construction, most of the flat owners delayed their instalments and the projects stopped. These small builders are not registered with any government or the ABAD.

Role of the marketing companies is to sell the projects on normal printed papers or receipts which have no legal authority in the law and thousands of people are giving them savings of their whole life to get shelter on their heads.

“If you have even a piece of 80 yards land in Karachi, you can construct flats on this plot,” said a KDA official. There was no law whether it was commercial or residential plot, you must have bribe to get legal documents,” he added.

“Approximately, 175-200 projects worth billions of rupee are under completion in Karachi and thousands of owners of the flats are waiting for the possession. I don’t know, where should I contact to get stuck up money back from the builder as there is no office of the builders nor marketing company,” said an owner of the flat.

The official of the front line marketing said: “Our work is to sell the project at early stage of the construction, but after that we have no link with the builder.”

According to a builder, some of the projects were stopped due to terrorism and law and order situation in Karachi, but most of the small builders have financial crisis after initiating the projects. He said the builders of the big projects had the bank guarantee and loans facilities on the construction site and they delivered their flats on time and with minor delay.

The builder said: “Small builders should be registered with the governments and the associations so that the customers of the flats/houses may lodge complaint of the delay or fraud case.”

“We have currently 9 million unit shortfall. Each year there is need for 600,000 units but only 300,000 units are constructed. This adds 300,000 numbers of units shortfall. In order to increase housing finance to 10 percent of GDP over next 10 years we have to finance some 300,000 units per year.”