By Ruban Selvanayagam, Exitus Construction Brazil

In recent years, Brazil’s housing market has witnessed significant gains on the back of a healthy economy stimulated by lower unemployment, controlled inflation and the increased availability of mortgage finance, amongst a number of other factors. Yet, whilst it is difficult to miss the vast level of construction work in most of the metropolitan regions of the country, the appearance of low-quality housing as well as favelas (urban slums) continues to remain very apparent.

Somewhat conversely—as official government statistics pointed to 90% of the total housing deficit of at least of 7.2 million units belonging to the lower-income sector—construction companies continue to cater for the middle and upper class home buyer. The logic of such commercial decisions lies in ensuring that the profit margins remain healthy, something of which constructing for the low-income market simply does not achieve. » Continue reading “Building Housing in Brazil That Works for Those in Real Need”

Saiban Office, Karachi

About forty-five minutes from the city center of Karachi, the land starts to stretch into a flat field of dust. The Karachi wind is strong, and if you turn your head the wrong way at the wrong time, you’ll get a mouthful of sand. Plastic bags from a nearby landfill get caught in the shrubs creating ugly fake plastic trees. Of late, this land is being snatched up by Karachi’s land gangsters: land mafia, land suppliers, middlemen, and illegal sub-dividers.  But, years ago, before anyone wanted this land, a man named Tasneem Siddiqui envisioned this as a field of dreams and staked his claim.

Siddiqui is the founder of Saiban, a housing development organization targeting the low-income population. Here in this dusty expanse, Saiban has created a township of 2,800 houses. This settlement is a unique joint venture between the government, who gave the land, and Saiban, who took on the onus of developing it for the low-income segment. In return, Saiban got 100 extra plots to sell at market rate, which serves as a revolving kitty for the project.

In the last issue of Beyond Profit, we published an article called What’s Wrong with Being Poor. As I toured the settlement, I thought of that question, and came back with the answer. I was looking at it. » Continue reading “The Other Side of Pakistan: A Room of One’s Own”