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Showing posts from 2009

Tata Housing - Who'll finance 'affordable' housing in India?

Tata Housing - Who'll finance 'affordable' housing in India? Brotin Banerjee is happy. He has been able to sell a fourth of the 1,500 apartments of his affordable housing project in Boisar, about 100 km from Mumbai, to people who he describes as belonging to the “informal sector”. These are buyers, the managing director of Tata Housing explains, who don’t have a bank account and, therefore, wouldn’t qualify for a bank loan. But thanks to Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC), a microfinance company, they can now hope to own a house. Tata Housing’s efforts at helping less privileged sections of society are commendable, but after a point it won’t be able to do much for the simple reason that there aren’t going to be enough lenders to give loans to these prospective home buyers. So, the shortage of homes in the “economically weaker segments and low-income groups” — estimated by Ernst and Young at some 26 million by 2012 — could be even bigger. Banks are doing their bit but

Affordable housing for the masses - India

Affordable housing for the masses Director Red Fort Capital The new age real estate developer has envisioned a dream — a dream of housing every family in the country. ‘Affordable housing’ is a term that posses the potential to transform this dream, also harboured by millions of households, into reality. Affordable housing includes value housing, which is the need of every middle class family, as well as low income housing, where the most significant need of India lies. Over a billion people around the world live in appalling conditions. In India alone, about 100 million people live in slums and slum-like conditions without adequate basic facilities. These numbers are expected to touch 200 million by 2020. If the current trend continues, the number of urban dwellers will reach almost 5 billion by 2030. In India, the urban population is expected to reach 576 million in 2030 from the current 328 million. With this rapid urbanisation, one of the biggest challenges will be providing afforda

Billions for low-cost housing - Thailand

Billions earmarked for low-cost housing - Bangkok Thailand A Bt3-million fund has been pledged to fund housing projects for low-income earners in a two-year project that runs until next year, Social Development and Human Security Minister Issara Somchai said yesterday. A request for a Bt1-billion should be tabled and approved at the Cabinet meeting today, said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He was delivering an opening statement at a Bangkok seminar yesterday at the United Nations headquarters. He said Thailand would be part of the UN project aimed at providing low-cost homes for 100 million slum dwellers worldwide by the year 2020.Somchai said another Bt2 billion would be mobilised from the Thai Khemkhaeng fund. The entire Bt3-billion budget will be used to give out as soft loans to people living in 1,000 slums both inside and outside Bangkok. The government has provided such loans to 86,000 families, out of a total of 200,000. Somboon Sing-ging, an advocate for low-cost housing pr

Shoddy houses for the poor

Sexwale takes aim at housing corruption HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is “sharpening his pencil” to root out corrupt contractors and officials who build shoddy houses for the poor. A National Housing Audit headed by the Special Investigations Unit had been instituted to find the culprits who had caused “chronic” and “massive” problems in housing, he told journalists in Pretoria. “The audit deals with issues where the law had been broken.” Sexwale said recent visits to all provinces, where he heard the concerns of those on the receiving end of low cost housing, and of those on waiting lists, had highlighted the need for an audit. In the Northern and Eastern Cape alone 3000 houses would have to be destroyed as a result of “shoddy” and corrupt workmanship. “In response to the situation we face, we have decided we need to take a rigorous look at housing delivery, from top to bottom. “We need to focus on issues we know are specific impediments: fraud, delays, corruption, absentee

Kenyans need more and quality low cost housing

01 November 2009 Kenyans need more and quality low cost housing Kenya faces a serious shortage of quality houses for an increasing population that is expected to hit 62 million by 2030. According to the latest Kenya Economic Report, over 60 per cent of this population will be living in urban areas.“Current estimates indicate that the country needs to build up to 150,000 housing units annually... However, only 23 per cent of this demand is being met.”The shortfall, the report adds, is more acute among low-income households whose present demand is about 48 per cent of all new housing required.New houses“Currently, more than 80 per cent of new houses are for high and upper middle-income earners. “However, because more than 60 per cent of the Kenyan population is younger than 25 years, it is clear that the demand for adequate housing will rise steadily as those aged 20 and below reach adulthood and start family life,” the report says.It identifies increasing the volume of funding towards c

Kenyans need more and quality low cost housing

Kenyans need more and quality low cost housing Kenya faces a serious shortage of quality houses for an increasing population that is expected to hit 62 million by 2030. According to the latest Kenya Economic Report, over 60 per cent of this population will be living in urban areas. “Current estimates indicate that the country needs to build up to 150,000 housing units annually... However, only 23 per cent of this demand is being met.” The shortfall, the report adds, is more acute among low-income households whose present demand is about 48 per cent of all new housing required. New houses “Currently, more than 80 per cent of new houses are for high and upper middle-income earners. “However, because more than 60 per cent of the Kenyan population is younger than 25 years, it is clear that the demand for adequate housing will rise steadily as those aged 20 and below reach adulthood and start family life,” the report says. It identifies increasing the volume of funding towards construction

Housing the Urban Poor

Africa : Focus on Housing the Urban Poor FACT : 62% of sub-Saharan Africa's Urban Population live in Slums.Millions of people move to Africa's cities every year, swelling the numbers of urban poor. "We cannot chase people away from slums," says Kelvin Mmangisa, chief executive of the Lilongwe City Assembly. "But we can improve the conditions there to make their lives better." Mmangisa made this call for investment in affordable housing for the poor in an interview with IPS on Jun. 10 in Nairobi, where he was among 200 delegates at a conference addressing challenges of urbanisation and poverty reduction for slum dwellers in developing nations. The conference was organised jointly by the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP), European Commission and UN-HABITAT - the United nations human settlement agency. His remark resonated with a key highlight of the Jun. 8-10 meeting - financing the upgrading of informal settlements in order to provide nec

70,000 new Kuwaiti homes planned by 2015 - Construction & Industry - ArabianBusiness.com

70,000 new Kuwaiti homes planned by 2015 - Construction & Industry - ArabianBusiness.com Kuwait is planning to build 70,000 new homes by 2015 to meet the country’s growing housing needs, a senior politician has said.Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Minister of State for Development and Housing, said the housing scheme would help push the country’s real estate sector towards recovery after the effects of the global financial crisis.The new homes will be powered by a suburban cooling system to help conserve energy resources and overcome power shortages, the news agency Kuna reported. This is what moladi has antisapated in 1986 - www.moladi.net

SLUM UPGRADING AND PREVENTION – THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW - modernghana.com/feature article

SLUM UPGRADING AND PREVENTION – THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW - modernghana.com/feature article In 1995 the United Nations set aside the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and the basic right to adequate shelter for all and to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. For this year the United Nations chose the theme Planning our Urban Future to raise awareness on the need to improve urban planning to deal with new major challenges of the 21st century.The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements at its Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements in 1976 affirmed adequate shelter and services as basic human rights. The Declaration further called for prioritizing the needs of the poor, homeless and most vulnerable groups of society in upholding this right. In the not so recent past it has emerged that there is a growing army of urban poor in Ghana living in predominantly slum areas

Increased temperature - Thermal mass vs. lightweight timber homes

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Increased temperature - The Concrete Centre embodied energy-moladi When taking account of the environmental sustainability of a construction material it is disingenuous to consider only its embodied carbon dioxide. Embodied CO2 is only part of the story. Embodied CO2 is considered a useful metric for comparing the global warming potential (GWP) of different construction materials. Based upon the extraction and transportation of raw materials and their manufacture into the final product, embodied CO2 is expressed as CO2 per unit mass (kgCO2/tonne) or CO2 per unit area for a completed building (kgCO2/m3). Interestingly, once issues such as raw material transportation are taken into account, the misconceptions about the embodied CO2 of different construction materials are made apparent ( see table: embodied carbon dioxide and construction materials ). However, when considering the sustainability of a construction material you need to look beyond the material's initial em

Low cost housing backlog in India - India Business Network

Low cost housing backlog in India - India Business Network Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as being associated with physiological needs, while the top level is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs. Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth.Physiological needsThese are the basic animal needs for such things as food, warmth, shelter, sex, water, and other body needs.The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are satisfied. Once an individual has moved upwards, to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized”.The objective of moladi is to address this fundamental need - SHELTER Affordable housing is in dire need all over the world. moladi, a South African Company, and a world leader in our field – supplying affordable housing con

Billions earmarked for low-cost housing - Nationmultimedia.com

Billions earmarked for low-cost housing - Nationmultimedia.com A Bt3-million fund has been pledged to fund housing projects for low-income earners in a two-year project that runs until next year, Social Development and Human Security Minister Issara Somchai said yesterday. A request for a Bt1-billion should be tabled and approved at the Cabinet meeting today, said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He was delivering an opening statement at a Bangkok seminar yesterday at the United Nations headquarters. He said Thailand would be part of the UN project aimed at providing low-cost homes for 100 million slum dwellers worldwide by the year 2020.Somchai said another Bt2 billion would be mobilised from the Thai Khemkhaeng fund. The entire Bt3-billion budget will be used to give out as soft loans to people living in 1,000 slums both inside and outside Bangkok. The government has provided such loans to 86,000 families, out of a total of 200,000. Somboon Sing-ging, an advocate for low-cost housin

Nigeria Needs 16 million Houses - moladi

Leadership Nigeria - For God and Country Nigeria Needs 16million Houses MTN Invests N117m In Housing Project Nigeria requires additional 16 million houses to address the housing needs of her teeming population. This is the view of the National Director, Habitat for Humanity Nigeria, Mr Ezehiel Ojo while speaking at the handover ceremony of 100 housing units to the beneficiaries by MTN Nigeria Limited, held in New Karu, in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. Ojo stated that the challenge before the country in terms of housing need is still the same. According to him, Nigeria currently has deficit of about 16 million units and the government cannot meet the demand alone. Although, there are many developers in the country, Ojo said their houses are beyond the reach of low income earners. "It is interesting to note that the so-called low cost housing units in the country are outside the reach of the middle income group talk more of low income. They are not in any way afford

Low-Income Housing: A Plausible Framework Pakistan

CSR and Low-Income Housing: A Plausible Framework Triple Bottom Line Magazine Currently, Pakistan has an overall housing backlog exceeding 6 million units with an annual addition of 300,000 units – based upon conservative estimates from the Population Census of 1998 and the National Housing Policy of 2001. Roughly 30-40 percent of the demand is addressed by mainstream developers who cater to the high-end market. The remaining units fall under the category of the low-income segment. The government has made repeated attempts to address this segment through various initiatives – seldom succeeding. The current low income housing deficit within Pakistan is 3 million units with an addition of 150,000 units per annum.In addition to these alarming rates, within the urban context, there is a disturbing pattern. Of those that do own homes, there is a clear pattern of constructing additional rooms as opposed to constructing new homes. This leads to an increase in the density of homes, thus furth

Low cost housing UAE | Cityscape Dubai - The demand for low-cost housing in the UAE is undeniable

Low cost Housing UAE-Experts call for governments to support low cost housing Cityscape Dubai Addressing the topic of whether the Middle East presented a best case scenario globally for investment in real estate, conference delegates at Cityscape Dubai stressed continued government infrastructure development as a key factor in confidence in and recovery of the sector. Managing Director of CBRE Middle East, Nicholas Maclean, said that while they had looked at low-cost housing projects, it was difficult to make the numbers work: "This has to be kick-started with government assistance since it could have a beneficial impact on the region as a whole," he said.Citing the example in Jordan, where the government has put in place a series of measures to germinate low-cost housing schemes, CEO of the Aqaba Development Corporation HE Eng Imad Fakhoury said, reverse engineering was called for to determine what sort of costings the markets would bear."To make this work, first you ha

Indonesia | earthquake | national disaster

Indonesia earthquake national disaster moladi has been supplying its comprehensive national disaster construction system, of which the formwork is merely a constituent of this technology, for the past 23 years. As a result, we do not simply supply modular plastic formwork, but a holistic building technology, that has been specifically designed and is proven too benefit the end user with its simplicity and ease of use. has developed a cast house system to construct durable structures of quality in the shortest possible time and earthquake proof. This system has developed into a construction technology that addresses eight key challenges embodied in the low cost and affordable housing shortages facing developing countries namely: lack of resources insufficient funds skills shortage time constraint work flow control time constraints waste emergency re-construction Traditional bricks or blocks are moulded in a small mould and then laboriously stacked by an artisan, sandwiched with mortar t

low cost housing - moladi

BBC NEWS Business Moroccan efforts to replace slums Moroccan efforts to replace slums By Malcolm Borthwick Editor, Middle East Business Report Casablanca has one of the largest slums in the whole of the Arab world Think of Casablanca and most of us imagine Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's epic wartime love affair. But this sprawling port city of more than three million people is also home of some of the largest slums in the Arab world. The rising young population, and growth in rural urban migration, has put pressure on housing, in cities such as Casablanca. Larbi Adri, a Moroccan electrician, showed us around the Casablancan slum where he lived for 10 years until a few weeks ago. It is early afternoon and many of his friends are hanging around here, because they don't have jobs. Unemployment is high, and without a steady job there's little hope of escaping the squalor. Sometimes my husband works all day and he doesn't earn even one cent; sometimes he doesn't se

Botswana Housing Corporation-Ministry plan to lower cost of houses

Mmegi Online :: BHC, ministry plan to lower cost of houses BHC, ministry plan to lower cost of houses The Minister of Lands and Housing Nonofo Molefhi has confirmed his ministry and the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) are working on plans to bring down the price of houses as well as rentals after concerns that they are unaffordable for many Batswana. However, Molefhi said in a phone interview that for now they are still discussing how new housing projects can be built at lower costs and thereby selling them to Batswana at reasonable prices. He said bringing down the cost of already existing properties is going to be a challenge as they will have to find alternative sources of funding to pay for the loans BHC got to build those houses. "For those already existing houses, we owe banks, we need to pay them back. The question is who will subsidize the shortfall?" Molefhi said. "We know that the houses are expensive (for Batswana). That is why we are looking for alternativ

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Emailing: allAfrica.com Angola President Dos Santos Confident About Sustainable Development (Page 1 of 1)