Dream of a home deferred for 900 families

Like most people living in Dhaka, Maududa Yesmin had a dream -- a dream of owning a home for her family. Determined, she and her husband, who worked at a private organisation, toiled hard to achieve that goal.

The housewife not only saved money from her husband's meagre salary, but also tutored students in between her daily chores. It took the couple nearly two decades, and fortune finally seemed to have smiled upon them.

In 2010, Maududa won a lottery of the National Housing Authority (NHA) -- a 1,000 square feet flat at a building in Mohammadpur area.

NHA took up the project in 1997. The initial plan was to provide lower and middle class people with plots at a lower rate (per katha plot at Tk 1 lakh or Tk 1.5 lakh) to solve their housing crisis, according to NHA officials.

Twenty years went by but they could not carry out the plan due to the change of governments, among other reasons, they added.

In 2010, NHA decided to allot flats to 900 families through lottery in Mohammadpur Block F. As part of their plan, NHA would construct 15 buildings consisting 900 flats.

For a prospective owner like Maududa, the arrangement was straightforward. She had to pay Tk 35 lakh for the 1,000 square feet flat under the housing scheme.

The payment plan was divided into two parts. First, she had to pay Tk 18 lakh in four instalments and then she had to finish the rest of the payment on a monthly basis.

In order to pay Tk 18 lakh, the couple withdrew their fixed deposit, took a loan from a relative and finally completed paying the final instalment in November last year.

She said as per the agreement, NHA was supposed to hand over the flat after they had finished paying Tk 18 lakh.

That, however, did not happen.

Instead, NHA decided to increase the price of the flat recently, almost double the previous amount Maududa was supposed to pay.

According to NHA, they have increased the price as per the government's new rate for the flats.

“We are still struggling to come up with the additional money,” a frustrated Maududa told this correspondent. “We're still living in a sublet room of a small house.”

Not just Maududa, almost all families who were allotted the flats (mostly lower middle class), are in a precarious situation due to the sudden increase in the pricing. Many of them had to either borrow money or sell land in village to pay the previous amount.

FAMILIES PROTEST PRICE HIKE

Protesting the authorities' move, most of the people who were given allotments of the flats organised a press conference in the capital recently. They said they also sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office, seeking the premier's intervention.

Convener of Mohammadpur Block F Flat Owners' Samity, Siddiqur Rahman Selim, said, “It has been seven years, but the authorities are yet to hand over the flats. Rather, they are now charging Tk 59 lakh for the same 1,000 square feet flat, which was Tk 35 lakh initially.”

He said the housing authorities were supposed to hand over the flats by 2014 or 2015. The price of an 800 square feet flat was Tk 30 lakh and of a 1,000 square feet flat was Tk 35 lakh, he said.

The amount was fixed at Tk 3,500 per square feet.

But NHA in a recent move increased the price to Tk 4,400 per square feet. They said the price was increased due to an additional construction cost such as staircases, lifts and lobbies.

The convener also claimed that these “hidden cost” was not mentioned in the prospectus.

“NHA asked us to submit the fourth instalment by November last year. They said construction works for five buildings out of 15 were going to be finished shortly. We deposited the money as per their demand,” he said.

He claimed that the authorities said they would hand over the flats by December 30 last year.

 “Instead of doing that, NHA hiked up the rate,” he added.

WHAT NHA SAYS

Contacted, SAM Fazlul Kabir, member (engineer and coordinator) of NHA, said they have increased the price as per the government's new rate for the flats.

He said the contractors who were assigned the construction works could not complete it due to a piling-related problem. A legal battle was going on between the contractors and NHA for a long time regarding the issue, which delayed the project, he added.

As they (NHA) had to change the design, hire a new contractor as well as due to the delay in implementation, their cost also went up, he said. Meanwhile, they had to change the price of the flats as per the new government rate, he added.

Kabir said they also formed a committee in this regard and the committee reduced around Tk 200 and fixed the rate at Tk 4,400 per square feet for a flat. It was also approved by the NHA board.

When asked about people's concern that they were being charged extra in the name of constructing lifts, lobbies and staircases, he said, “We're not charging anything out of the blue, those were initially in the plan.”

He said it was a “mistake” that they did not mention those in the prospectus.

“Five of the buildings would be completed by June this year while the rest by June 2019,” he added.

He also added that they would soon send a proposal to the housing and public works ministry for reducing the price of the flats.