KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday set up a Steering Committee on Housing and Construction Finance to prepare for and implement sustainable market-led financing of housing projects and mortgages in order to promote the development of housing and construction industry in the country.

“Housing finance was a priority area for the central bank and the SBP will play a facilitative and supportive role for its promotion in the country,” said SBP Governor Reza Baqir.

At the meeting, the SBP and commercial banks announced their decision to work on two pilot projects: one on the government land and other on the private sector builders’ models. The SBP is gearing up efforts for housing projects in the light of government’s plan to build low-cost housing projects for low-income people.

The first meeting of the committee was held on Tuesday to deliberate on the terms of reference and the way forward. The committee 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 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 committee.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2020