To prepare and implement a roadmap to ensure sustainable market-led financing of housing projects and mortgages in order to promote the development of housing and construction industry in the country, the Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Dr. Reza Baqir, formed a Steering Committee on Housing and Construction Finance last week. The Committee constituted members including Lt. General (rtd.) Anwar Ali Haider, Chairman NAPHDA, Mr. Jameel Ahmad, Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan, and presidents of the following banks: Habib Bank, National Bank, Meezan Bank, Faysal Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank Alfalah. The committee is chaired by the Governor SBP. The first meeting of the committee was held today to deliberate on the terms of reference (ToRs) of the committee and the way forward.
Addressing the committee, Governor Baqir deliberated that housing finance was a priority area for the central bank and reiterated that SBP will play a facilitative and supportive role for its promotion in the country. Member banks expressed their keenness to work with SBP and NAPHDA to promote the financing of the identified projects. After detailed deliberations, Chairman of the committee Dr. Reza Baqir constituted sub-committees to work in parallel on different work streams including developer finance, end-user housing finance, use of technology, development of capital market & long term yield curve, risk mitigation mechanism and removal of legal and regulatory hurdles in housing finance. Members of the Steering Committee volunteered as lead and co-lead champions to discuss and identify solutions in respective areas for the consideration of the main committee. The Committee also discussed two initial pilot projects, one on the Government land model and the other on the private sector builders’ model. It was decided that the volunteering banks will hold meetings with NAPHDA on the financing of government land model and developer finance during the current week and will present their reports in the next weekly meeting of the Steering Committee.
