Pakistan, a country with population of 207.7 million and 32.2 million households, is facing a housing shortage of over nine million units. It also has the lowest housing-to-finance ratio in the world. But with the advent of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, some people have started to look to China to tackle this crisis. Of particular interest is the quick solution of prefabricated construction technology in which China has considerable experience.
A prefabricated or prefab building is manufactured and constructed with near ready-made components. Unlike the traditional method of brick-to-brick construction, prefab technology, also called modular construction, is all about factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building.
Although modular methods have been used for high-rise apartment blocks elsewhere in the world, it is China that has in recent years enhanced its prefabricated technology so much that now it has the largest number of tall buildings in the world that used it. China has been finishing more skyscrapers than any other country as well.
Now two of Pakistan’s provincial governments, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, are in negotiations with Chinese prefabrication construction companies to develop their own housing schemes. If it works out, this could possibly mean an investment of billion of rupees in this sector, The Friday Times has learnt.
For instance, KP, which is facing a 2.1 million shortages of houses, is in talks with a Chinese company for two schemes worth Rs396 billion to build 220,000 single-story buildings. “There have been various meetings between the KP government and a Chinese company. The deal is likely to be inked very soon,” Saif-ur-Rehman Usmani, who is the director of Town Planning at the Provincial Housing Authority in KP, told TFT. According to him, both schemes would be worked out through bank mortgages in which the government would be playing the coordinating role between the end-user and the company.
Two of Pakistan's provincial governments, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, are in negotiations with Chinese prefabrication construction companies to develop their own housing schemes
“One housing scheme is for government employees in which there would be 100,000 housing units worth Rs180 billion. The units are likely to be constructed in Peshawar, Abbottabad, Kohat and Swat,” he explained. “Other scheme is for the private sector. There would be 120,000 housing units to be constructed. This scheme is worth Rs216 billion rupees.”
In Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province with the population of 110 million people, there is a plan to construct multi-story housing buildings at divisional headquarters, an entirely new approach. Urbanisation is putting an increasing load on cities, which were developing a scarcity of accommodation. This prompted the government to look for construction of multi-story residential facilities on the outskirts of such settlements.
“Until now you will not have seen many high-rise buildings in Punjab,” says Malik Nadeem Kamran, Punjab Minister for Planning and Development. “With the help of Chinese companies we have plans to make buildings with every district. However at present we are working on a proposal to construct 2,000 eight-storied residential units in every divisional headquarters.” This includes Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal, mostly adjacent to CPEC industrial units of the province, he added. “But nothing is final yet,” he stressed. The dismissal of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister made Chinese investors a bit cagey. “It looks like the uncertainty about the housing projects will last until the clouds clear over this matter,” he said.
This 57-storey tower in China includes 800 apartments and was constructed at a rate of three floors per day - Photo InHabitat
The need for housing is quite definitely linked to what the government sees as trends that will emerge with CPEC which is at least a $62 billion investment in Pakistan. CPEC, which covers energy, agriculture and infrastructure, does not include housing schemes, a spokesman for the Ministry of Planning and Development clarified. “Whatever investment deals are being done, would be between the federal Ministry of Housing or provincial governments with Chinese companies. They are not part of CPEC,” clarified Hassan Dawood, Project Director for CPEC.
But the fact of the matter is that along with CPEC, the Chinese private sector is also offering its services, under this mega investment’s influence. Chinese companies would help government-to-private and private-to-private sector options to build low-cost pre-fabricated houses and high-rise structures.
Chinese companies showing a keen interest in preparing prefabs for Pakistan can be gauged by the sudden increase in online advertising. For instance, there is a massive ad by China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba group on Pakistani websites, offering prefab products. In May this year Alibaba, the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company, signed a memorandum of Understanding with Pakistan to support e-Commerce development in the country. The MoU was signed in May during former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the Alibaba Headquarters in Hangzhou, China.
Besides government, private builders such as Moazzam Ali Ghurki are also planning to experiment with Chinese prefab. In his 15-year career, Ghurki says he had never tried prefab but is thinking about it for his Canal Garden Housing society which is under construction in Lahore’s outskirts. “Initially I would import steel-structured Chinese prefab units for small villas with three bedrooms. Multi-story buildings would be the next thing,” he said.
“China has liquidity and expertise in prefab high-rise buildings and Pakistan badly needs solution to its critical housing problem,” said Ghurki, who is also the vice president of the Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The head of architecture and planning at NED University, Dr Noman Ahmed, is skeptical this approach will tackle a systemic problem of providing housing for the poor. He thinks that the influx of prefab technology can be considered lucrative only for investors and people want to invest their money in real estate. “For the last 30 years or so, the government has not announced any significant housing schemes for the poorest of the poor class who are in dire need,” he said. “There is a problem for the poorest who cannot even think of buying a small abode for their families as they don’t have access to land and credit.”
So there will be always be a question mark on these schemes if they are only catering to the upper and middle class.
Zulfiqar Kunbhar is Karachi-based journalist. He tweets @ZulfiqarKunbhar
