Housing projects suffering due to depreciation of rupee, inflation and stay orders.

The Financial Daily 14/ 05/ 2023 Karachi
The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises ( UNISAME) president Zulfikar Thaver at the behest of SME builders pointed out that the housing construction industry is subjected to a lot of delays due to objections raised by people who have made this their occupation to raise various frivolous objections and get the work delayed or suspended and delayed by obtaining status quo or stay orders from the courts.
Thaver also noted noted that the builders are already suffering due to depreciation of rupee and inflation and tremendous increase in cost due to building material having become very costly.
UNISAME Council members said many projects have become unviable because of prevailing stay orders which did not allow further constructions and work was suspended due to stay order and then when the so called violation is removed and the constructors went to procure the material it had become almost twice the amount.
The entire feasibility stood destroyed by huge increase in cost.
Many SME builders have been thrown out of business due to this malpractice of extracting money from builders by pointing out violations which were not true and then bargaining with them or black among them and removing the objection after extracting some money.
However in cases of genuine objections raised the objector desires the objection to be removed and his purpose is not to extract money but get the violation rectified.
In view of the above the SME builders have humbly urged the presiding officers in various forums to expedite matters and conclude matters to enable the builders to complete their projects promptly.
In many cases the status quo granted by the courts is misinterpreted and in letter and spirit it only ask the disputing parties to restrain from carrying out a certain specific portion or area of violation only.
Many housing projects have stopped work and on the point of total closure as besides the increase in prices there is also an increase in cost of financing which has made both the booking company and the applicants cancel the contract as the buyer is unable to buy on new rates and the builder cannot deliver at the old rates.
The UNISAME Council experts said it is very unfortunate that the concerned ministry never takes step at the right time but comprehend an adverse situation very late when it is already in deep turmoil. The construction industry could have been saved in good time.

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