The five-day Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) fair concluded yesterday on a mixed note. The number of prospective buyers of flats and plots visiting the fair at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre was neither overwhelming, as was the case in the past, nor disappointing considering the financial battering the middle class has taken in the post-Covid period. However, the online enquiries by non-resident Bangladeshis was quite encouraging for the realtors. The offer of attractive discounts up to 1.0 million on on-the-spot purchase of flats makes quite a statement about the usefulness of such a housing fair and overall state of business in this sector. Sure enough, the sudden conclusion of the fair at 2:00 pm on Sunday instead of the scheduled 9:00 pm had an adverse impact on the arrival of an unusually high number of visitors such events usually draw late in the day and the last-minute hectic business clinch.
The developers and realtors have been showcasing their products ---in this case houses, flats and plots for building houses --- since 2002. This sector has witnessed burgeoning business ever since except for some spasmodic contractions for reasons integral to the country's economy and international developments. Although brick and sand among the building materials can be locally sourced, raw materials for cement and ms (mild steel) rod and paints have to be imported. Thus the housing sector is largely dependent on variables of those materials. Even bricks, now coal-fired, depend on the prices of imported coal. Wherever there is the compulsion for import of certain commodity, there is a chance of exaggerated profit by importers, as has become evident by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission's analysis of the imported price of coal and the soaring price at which brick kiln owners have to procure it from the domestic market.
In this context, the issue of eco-friendly and better-lasting building blocks comes to the fore. Hollow concrete blocks should have been promoted by encouraging the brick manufacturers to shift to the environmentally suitable technology. Brick kilns still use firewood rather clandestinely and there are instances that the kilns came up not long after those had been demolished by the authorities. Such campaigns will not succeed as long as the brick makers will not be given an easy and practicable option. Surely, making of concrete block can be a viable option for them. But this will call for handing over the know-how and technology to the manufacturers of bricks.
The REHAB fair had an opportunity of directing focus on the merit of constructing buildings with concrete blocks. Already a number of reputed housing companies are producing the concrete blocks but they mostly do so for building their flats in housing societies. The concrete blocks can be cheaper than bricks and the building built with those are stronger and more durable. Here the government's policy counts most. Instead of just launching of occasional perfunctory drives against illegal brick kilns which are devastating top soil of surrounding lands and damaging the environment, promotion of green technology for housing will richly benefit the nation.