The International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Wednesday proposed forming a 13-member working committee, comprising Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and all other stakeholders, to create an enabling environment for affordable housing.
In the last meeting of a series of meetings on affordable housing, IFC with support of Policy Research Institute (PRI) unveiled a roadmap with a number of proposals in this regard including setting up Bangladesh Mortgage Refinance Company (BMRC).
A feasible proposition will have to be developed either for setting up a new entity or transformation of existing entity- Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation - for ensuring credit inflow to housing for the low and middle -income groups of the country, suggests IFC at the event at a city hotel.
Before the day's meeting, IFC and PRI had organised five roundtable discussions on affordable housing since October 2021 to deliberate on the key challenges and opportunities in the urban affordable housing sector in Bangladesh and subsequently identify the crucial interventions or initiatives where the World Bank Group (WBG) can jointly work with the relevant public and private stakeholders to put together the building blocks for the development of this sector.
At the sixth and final housing roundtables of the series on July 27, 2022, IFC shared the Affordable Housing Sector Development Roadmap, recommending concrete next steps to support the development of an efficient housing market in the country.
The roadmap suggested formulation of the vision under the working committee for green and resilient affordable housing.
It recommended regulations and incentives for banks, financial institutions, house builders or developers, and home-buyers with additional incentives for green affordable housing.
The roadmap also advocated designing and implementing a PPP Demonstration Affordable Housing Project on land parcels identified by RAJUK.
It also urged the government to set up a shelter fund to support private sector developers.
Speaking at the function, Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said the government, especially his ministry, is ready to extend any support to move ahead with the roadmap.
IFC Country Manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Martin Holtmann said IFC is supporting the project to help middle class of the country as the class comprises the ones that stabilise a country.
PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur moderated the discussion.
As part of this support to the sector, IFC subscribed to Bangladesh's first-ever privately-placed housing bond by BRAC Bank Limited, investing up to $50 million to help BRAC Bank expand its affordable housing programme.
The IFC-BRAC Bank partnership in this programme will enable thousands of low and middle-income urban families in the country to avail affordable housing loans.
Brac Bank CEO Selim RF Hussain said they are in the project not for profit but to build capability of the sector nationwide.
