Karachi, Pakistan - LSE Cities• The Urban Resource Center, Karachi, is working on this. • The new government in Pakistan proposes to build 5 million houses in 5 years. The major

Karachi, Pakistan

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Urban Age Conference: Addis Ababa 29-30-18

Arif Hasan Email: [email protected] Website: www.arifhasan.org

Pakistan: Housing Backlog Issues

Developing Urban Futures

Population: 212 million

Urban Population: 75.58 million

Total Area: 881,913 sq. km.

Density: 244.4 people per sq. km.

PAKISTAN URBAN HOUSING SUPPLY-DEMAND• Urban Housing Demand: 350,000 units/year

• Formal Housing Supply: 150,000 units/year

• Backlog: 8.5 million units/year

• To freeze the housing situation as it is today, Rs. 100 billion (US$ 751.965 million) per year will be required for the next 10 years.

• In the 2017-18 national budget Rs. 2.33 billion were allocated for housing.

• Total finances available for housing with housing and microcredit banks: Rs. 14 billion. (US$ 105.275 million).

• Government policy is to access the market and for it, it has liberalized loans. The poor still cannot access the market due to an absence of collateral and/or formal sector jobs.

• If we redefine the factors that constitute the backlog, it will be considerably reduced, leading to a very different housing policy.

• The Urban Resource Center, Karachi, is working on this.

• The new government in Pakistan proposes to build 5 million houses in 5 years. The major problem it faces is in the acquisition of land.

All statistics in this presentation have been worked out with few minor adjustments from the Government of Pakistan Populatio n and Housing Census 1998.

KARACHI’S CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

LOCATION OF KARACHI KATCHI ABADIS

THE DEMOLISHED LYARI SETTLEMENTS

THE VICTIMS OF THE LYARI DEMOLITIONS

KARACHI HOUSING BACKLOG• Karachi Population: 17 million

• Karachi Metropolitan Area: 3,780 sq. km.

• Karachi Density: 3,900 people per sq. km.

• Karachi Annual Growth at 3.4 % year: 374,000 persons

• Urban Housing Growth Demand: 57,500 units per year

• Karachi Backlog: 880,000 (conventionally calculated). This can be overcome by providing 88,000 units per year in 10 years: an impossibility.

• Backlog is considered as:

- houses of “temporary” materials: these can become permanent

- houses without a kitchen: these can acquire a kitchen

- houses without sanitation: these can acquire sanitation

• Backlog can be considerably reduced and a very different housing policy can be developed if:

- all households having security of tenure or have been notified for it are not considered a part of the backlog

- all households that can acquire it by small adjustments to policy are also not considered a part of the backlog

ORANGI TOWN: REGULARIZED/NOTIFIED FOR REGULARIZATION

PROPOSAL FOR KARACHI• Housing policies for urban areas should be city/district specific.

• City should be divided into formally planned and informally planned areas.

• For formally planned areas (population: 6.5 million, households: 993,846) a policy for densification should be developed. The y should not be considered a part of the backlog.

• Informally planned areas (population: 10.5 million, households: 1.6 million) should be divided into:

- areas which have been regularized or have been marked for it (households: 1 million). These should be given advice and hou se improvement loans.

- areas that can be regularized with small change in laws (households: 324,307). Regularization and infrastructure developme nt should be pursued over a 5 year period including technical advice and managerial guidance.

- areas that cannot be regularized (households: 291,878): relocation process should be developed. These are part of the backlog.

- areas suffering from overcrowding: loans and technical advice for improving homes and neighborhoods.

- areas suffering from severe overcrowding: city government projects, for replacement over a 20 year period. Financed as loa ns to the city government by the federal government.

• Community savings systems already exist and their process should be linked to accessing loans for house improvement.

• The most important ingredient of this proposal is the creation of special units that can provide technical assistance and man agerial guidance to self-help house improvements and to informal developers. Universities can play an important role in this.

By linking backlog to tenure security, backlog is reduced from 880,000 to 350,000,000 (291,878+57,500 required for populationgrowth per year).

QAYUMABAD IN THE FOREGROUND: AN INFORMAL KARACHI SETTLEMENT

THAT CAN BE REGULARIZED WITH A SLIGHT CHANGE IN LAW

PATHAN COLONY: NON-REGULARIZABLE FOR ECOLOGICAL REASONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The material in the presentation is drawn from my research in which the following persons and organizations have been involved at different times:

• Urban Resource Center, Karachi (URC)

• Urban Research and Development Cell, NED University

• Orangi Pilot Project (OPP)

• International Institute for Environment and Development, UK (IIED)

• Engr. Mansoor Raza

• Hamza Arif