Maryam Nawaz orders targets met as repayments hit 97.6pc and 128,718 homes are finished; a Lahore tailor turned down for a loan asks why the poorest still cannot qualify, while small-house prices climb.
LAHORE: Punjab’s interest-free housing scheme has now issued more than 225,000 loans and borrowers are repaying at a rate of 97.6pc, the provincial government said, as Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif ordered officials to meet the programme’s completion targets and approved a fresh call for applications.
The figures, released after a special meeting chaired by the chief minister to review Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar (My Roof, My Home), point to a programme that has moved money to hundreds of thousands of families at a pace well ahead of earlier national housing schemes such as Naya Pakistan Housing. They also leave out a large group the scheme was not designed to reach: low-income families who rent and own no land.
More than 1.7 million people have registered on the scheme’s portal, according to the government. Over 225,000 loans have been issued, 171,597 borrowers have received the second instalment of their loan, and 128,718 houses have been completed, with another 62,600 nearing completion.
Borrowers have repaid Rs22.29 billion in instalments so far, a recovery rate of 97.6pc that the government called a new record. That matters because the scheme runs as a revolving fund: new loans depend partly on old ones being repaid.
The pace is steady rather than dramatic. At a review on Oct. 16, Housing Minister Bilal Yasin reported 217,000 families helped, Rs284.4 billion disbursed, 126,239 homes completed and 1.528 million applications. Since then, about 2,500 more homes have been finished, around 8,000 more loans issued and roughly 170,000 more people have registered. On those figures, only about one in seven people who have registered has received a loan.
A companion scheme, Apni Chhat, Mehfooz Chhat (My Roof, Safe Roof), which lends money to repair or extend unsafe houses, has closed its application window. It has disbursed Rs1.216 billion to 3,055 applicants, and work on 532 houses has been completed. It was launched after a roof collapse in Lahore’s Kahna area killed children earlier this year, a tragedy echoed months later in Peshawar.
How the loans reach people
Families apply online and are assessed by the scheme’s lending partners, the microfinance institutions Akhuwat, NRSP and RCDP, with the Bank of Punjab as partner bank, according to the government’s submission to UN-Habitat. Approved loans of up to Rs1.5 million are paid into borrowers’ bank accounts in two instalments, and families build the house themselves. The government covers the interest, leaving a fixed monthly instalment of about Rs14,000.
The Lahore Times has confirmed that families across the province are benefiting through this bank-linked system, with loans moving through formal accounts rather than intermediaries.
The scheme is built for families who already own a small plot, up to five marla in a city or ten in a village, and lack the money to build. Families with no land cannot apply, a design limit The Lahore Times examined when the scheme won its UN award.
Muhammad Ilyas, 54, who runs a small tailoring shop in Lahore’s Saddar area, said his application was rejected almost immediately because of his low income and bank statement.
“We are a family of five and live in a small rented house in Saddar,” he told The Lahore Times. “If this loan is for the deserving, why am I not eligible? We should be given this loan or a house.”
Ilyas said that even if his bank statement did not meet the bank’s requirements, he could show a record of paying rent every month, which his landlord could confirm. He appealed to the Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz to take notice of how small business owners who are clearly in need, but whose bank records fall short, can benefit.
His case shows two hurdles the poorest face. Many small traders in Pakistan deal in cash and keep little in formal accounts, so their income does not show up on paper; banks have only recently begun adopting tools to make small businesses bankable. And as a renter without a plot, Ilyas falls outside the group the scheme was built to serve. It was not clear which of these factors led to his rejection.
Khalid Muneer, a Meezan Bank representative, said bank staff were doing their best to help applicants but could not bypass the system. “We have to follow the bank’s protocols,” he told The Lahore Times. Branch staff, he said, take applications and guide customers through the official process but are not allowed to give approvals or answers before an application is accepted or rejected. “It’s the bank only, and we are employees with limited resources,” he said.
The scheme’s success has had a knock-on effect. Demand for small houses priced under Rs10 million (1 crore) has risen in Lahore, and The Lahore Times has found that prices in that segment have climbed as buyers and builders compete for the same limited inventory.
For families just above the scheme’s reach, that means the cheapest homes are getting more expensive at the same time as they are trying to buy one.
The award and how it was presented
The programme received a UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour in Muscat on Oct. 5. UN-Habitat’s notification named the Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency and the programme as the recipient, and the chief minister collected it on the province’s behalf.
Information Minister Azma Bokhari credited the award to the chief minister and described the scheme as one of the world’s top five housing projects. The Scroll of Honour is not a ranking: it goes to up to five recipients a year for work on housing and cities, and this year’s other winners included London Mayor Sadiq Khan. It is nonetheless UN-Habitat’s highest honour, and Pakistan’s first since 2007.
The chief minister ordered officials to meet the scheme’s completion targets and approved inviting new applications. The government aims to reach more than 300,000 families by June, and has spoken of 500,000 over five years. The World Bank has expressed interest in supporting the programme.
Officials did not say whether new rounds would include options for families without land, such as rent-to-own housing on state land, which the government has proposed through joint ventures with private developers. For applicants like Ilyas, that will decide whether Punjab’s flagship housing scheme can reach the people who need a roof the most.
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