ABSTRACT
To tackle some of the housing related issues the federal government enacted the National Housing Policy in 2001. Karachi is lucky in that it has large tracts of government-owned land on its periphery. Karachi is the largest city of Pakistan. Karachi has a booming real estate development in both formal and informal sectors with adequate skilled manpower, entrepreneurship and substantial state-owned land resources. As a result of the government's aggressively promoted neoliberal policies, there has been no public sector housing schemes for low-income groups over the past two decades. To give a boost to its policies, the government-owned House Building Finance Corporation has become a private company called the House Building Finance Company Limited (HBFCL n.d.). In addition, there are micro-credit banks that also lend small loans for house improvement. Another important development is the Islamic banking system where instead of credit and interest rates, there is a joint ownership of the house between the owner and bank till the loan is repaid.
