Only 5.0 per cent of the housing demand is met in Dhaka city, a study reveals. Now the city requires 0.12 million housing units in total.
The issue came to light as Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) launched a report titled ‘State of Cities 2017: Housing in Dhaka' at a press conference at Brac Centre Inn on Sunday.
The private sector supplies 25000 housing units annually while the public sector contribution is conspicuously absent from solving this crisis, the report says.
Affording a house is becoming difficult more and more day by day for the lower middle and middle income people in the city, it says.
The study adds, people spend over 30 per cent of their income for house rent and utility services which is a threat for their sustainability here.
It finds over 57 per cent of the lower and middle income people having zero savings keeping them out of the housing market.
Sixty eight per cent of tenants do not want to purchase flats in the city, while only 6.0 per cent of the lower and middle income city dwellers are able to pay a down payment of Tk 1.9 million within six years, it also reveals.
BIGD senior research associate Selina Aziz presented the findings while executive director Sultan Hafeez Rahman also spoke at the media conference.
Airing his fear of the city's gradually increasing economic polarisation, Sultan Hafeez Rahman called for steps to save it from becoming a city of two classes – the rich and the poorest – where the middle class will be squeezed.
