The Ministry of Urban Development has started preparing a concept paper on housing cooperatives with an aim to build affordable housing units for lower-middle- and middle-income groups through cooperatives.

“The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has provided us an expert to conduct a feasibility study on the concept of housing cooperatives,” joint secretary at the urban development ministry Suresh Prakash Acharya said. The expert has been given a deadline of January 15 to hand over a report. “Once we receive the report, we will start formulating a policy on housing cooperatives, a draft of which will be prepared by the end of this fiscal year.”

The policy primarily aims at facilitating housing cooperatives rolling out housing projects in urban areas to build various infrastructure and public utility facilities.

“For instance, once the housing cooperative selects a site to build its project we will make sure it has good road network, schools and health centres,” Acharya said. “We will also make sure that the project site has facilities like electricity, drinking water and sewage.”

These measures, the ministry hopes, will bring down the cost of building the project which, in turn, will bring down the cost of housing units in the colony. “But we are still discussing the matter and we are currently in the initial stage of discussions,” Acharya said. “However, what is sure is that the policy will help in the development of affordable housing units for people of lower-middle- and middle-income groups who are currently forced to live in rented rooms or apartments.”

At present, many people living in urban areas are living in rented rooms or apartments because they cannot afford to buy houses and apartments built by housing development companies.

The Nepal Living Standards Survey 2010-11 says almost 50 per cent of the households in Kathmandu Valley are renting rooms and apartments for accommodation.

Another survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics says that around 255,444 of total of 435,544 households in Kathmandu district are living in rented rooms and apartments. Similarly, 44,806 of the total 109,505 households in Lalitpur district and 22,349 of 68,557 households in Bhaktapur district are renting rooms and apartments for accommodation, says survey report.

“Housing cooperatives can play a key role in moving these people from rented rooms and apartments to their own houses, as such units can pool financial resources to build housing units for their members at affordable prices,” Acharya said.

source: the himalayan times,27 Nov 2013