THE real estate sector in Pakistan is a microcosm of our political-economic system at large. Everyone knows that the rot is glaringly deep, but those who control the reins of power are so invested in status quo that they consciously allow it to fester with no end. Flash floods in the twin cities over the past few days have once again laid bare this ugly reality.
Cases in point are the coveted Bahria Town and DHA housing schemes in Rawalpindi, some sectors of which were completely submerged by raging waters. In the current season, there have been similar scenes in the concrete jungle that is Lahori suburbia. A couple of years ago, rain in Karachi turned celebrated gated housing schemes built on reclaimed land into swamplands.
It is misleading to put all this down to more rain. The effects of planetary climate change notwithstanding, the fundamental problem is that our metropolitan cities and even smaller towns have become complete hostages to real estate moguls, and gated housing schemes in particular. The officials that supposedly plan the process of urbanisation have effectively become auctioneers invested in speculative property markets.
For the umpteenth time: the vast majority of gated housing schemes cause a warped kind of urban sprawl that wipes out agriculture and/or coastal ecologies, blocks natural drainage systems, and exacerbates heat island effects due to the excessive use of concrete and asphalt — all of which directly trigger flash floods like the ones that we are witnessing again.
Millions who need housing are deprived of it.
There are, of course, many other domestic causes, but the real estate sector is arguably the single biggest contributor to urban flooding. And with each passing year, it becomes clearer that profiteers continue to make merry irrespective of long-run impacts.
Let me reiterate yet another well-known effect of these schemes: they sacrifice the basic housing and other needs of the working poor. There is an immense crisis of housing in urban Pakistan; the State Bank estimates a shortfall of 10 million housing units. Every year, the gap between the supply of housing and demand for it grows exponentially.
The cruel irony is that the real estate sector is indeed supplying housing units — but only for the rich and those aspiring to the extremely vague category of the ‘middle class’. The overwhelming majority of those who need housing in cities and towns falls into neither of these categories, and gated housing schemes actually dispossess a significant number of working families in the peri-urban areas of their homes in historical villages and/or self-made katchi abadis.
In contrast, a large number of units in gated housing schemes remain unoccupied, even when they are sold from one investor to the next. In other words, there is a glut of housing units which do not serve their intended purpose, while millions who need housing are deprived of it. A related development is that of commercial real estate, like plazas, which are also often unoccupied even as the circuit of profit grows. This absurdity is what we call financialised capitalism.
This past budget season we were fed soundbites that long-awaited restrictions would finally be imposed on the real estate sector. There were rumours of a meaningful taxation regime, along with more stringent environmental regulations. Unsurprisingly, nothing of substance actually came to pass.
There are many young Pakistanis for whom acquiring a plot in a gated housing scheme and the requisite lifestyle that it engenders is amongst one of life’s major goals. This is only natural in a society like ours, where atomisation is intensifying and there is immense appeal of a ‘secure’ life away from the increasingly chaotic — and violent — everyday life.
There is nothing wrong with young people aspiring to an idyllic existence in which their basic material and recreational needs are met. But it is a matter of fact that the aspirations sold by big developers are simply unattainable for the vast majority of young Pakistanis who do not hail from hereditary wealth and power.
And it is now increasingly clear that many of these schemes are built atop deteriorating ecologies that sooner or later take their revenge on the manmade disasters masquerading as ‘secure’ gated housing schemes.
Ultimately, the state bears the most responsibility. It is wilfully presiding over the unending expansion of a sector that actively impinges on the public interest, as defined by the needs of the working class majority and future generations who will bear the burden of ecological destruction. Individual moguls like Malik Riaz may be temporary losers in palace intrigues, but it is the militarised ruling class as a whole that must be cut down to size.
The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2025
