Pakistan housing problems
Housing shortage in Pakistan
Pakistan is facing the severe housing shortage due to the high population growth rate. Pakistan population is increasing at the annual rate of 1.57%. 60% of present housing stock in Pakistan has passed their use-able life and should be replaced. Pakistan needs to build small houses to cover the housing shortage of 10 million houses.
Housing in Pakistan is very expensive
Pakistani housing is very expensive due to the high inflation rate. Wages in Pakistan never increased according to the inflation. House price to salary ratio is 10:1 in Pakistan, whereas affordable house price to salary ratio is 4:1. Expensive housing is one of the reasons that home ownership is declining in Pakistan.
Lack of affordable housing in Pakistan
History of affordable housing in Pakistan shows that some efforts we made to provide the low cost housing to general public. Affordable housing was provided by the government and private housing developers in Pakistan. But these efforts were very limited and general public could not benefit these efforts. Lack of affordable housing is the major reason of homelessness in Pakistan.
No decent housing standards in Pakistan
Pakistan has no decent housing standards. People are forced to live in the overcrowded slum dwellings without proper ventilation and general facilities. Room occupancy is very high in Pakistan as compared to the developed countries. 40 million Pakistanis have no access to basic facilities like toilets. A decent home for every Pakistani is what we immediately need in Pakistan.
Solving the housing problems in Pakistan
To solve the housing problems in Pakistan we need to Develop Pakistan as a welfare state where government takes care of its citizens. Government can provide housing assistance by starting the housing benefits in Pakistan. Secondly, we need to implement decent home standards to provide better housing in Pakistan. Thirdly, Government needs to encourage housing construction in Pakistan to solve the housing shortage. Fourthly, we need to increase house affordability of general public in Pakistan by increasing the salaries. Finally, we need to start building modern, sustainable, Eco-friendly or green homes in Pakistan. This will help us to to minimize the environmental damage and this will also help us to solve the electricity crisis in Pakistan.