World Bank Approves $145 Million for Affordable Housing in Pakistan

The World Bank approved $145 million today, to expand home ownership for women and the poor through access to affordable housing finance in Pakistan. The Pakistan Housing Finance Project (PHFP) will support Government of Pakistan’s vision and strategy for housing development. The project will extend financial and technical assistance to Pakistan Mortgage Refinancing Company (PMRC), the Planning Commission (PC), and other institutions to increase the availability of mortgage financing for households. Nearly a third of country’s population does not own homes and this pressure is rising with growing demand. “This project will spur the development of housing mortgage market in the country and make housing finance affordable and reachable to many Pakistanis,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. The project adopts an innovative approach, including crowding in commercial financing for home ownership and providing greater incentives for women to become homeowners. It also incentivizes people to build energy efficient and green homes and adopt climate and disaster-resilient construction designs and materials. ALSO READ Zameen is Leading the Efforts to Reduce Housing Deficit in Pakistan “Pakistan’s mortgage finance to Gross Domestic Product ratio of 0.25 percent is extremely low compared to the South Asia average of 3.4 percent,” said Korotoumou Ouattara, World Bank Senior Financial Sector Economist. PHFP is financed by the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for the poor, with a maturity of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years.