PM Shehbaz Launches Rs3.2 Trillion Apna Ghar Housing Loan Scheme
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday formally launched the Apna Ghar Programme, a flagship government housing finance initiative backed by Rs3.2 trillion in allocated resources, under which eligible citizens will be able to access individual housing loans of up to Rs10 million. The launch marks one of the largest state-backed affordable housing interventions in Pakistan's recent history.
The scheme is designed to address the country's acute housing deficit, estimated at over ten million units, by channelling subsidised or concessionary credit through designated financial institutions to low and middle-income households. Prime Minister Shehbaz personally disbursed the first tranche of loans at the launch ceremony, signalling political commitment to the programme's execution.
Officials described the Apna Ghar Programme as a transformative effort to bring homeownership within reach of salaried and informal sector workers who are otherwise excluded from conventional mortgage markets. The scheme is expected to catalyse activity across the construction, cement, steel, and labour sectors, creating downstream economic multipliers.
However, analysts have flagged questions around implementation capacity, credit risk management by participating banks, and the government's ability to sustain the programme's financial commitments given ongoing fiscal consolidation under the IMF framework. The scheme's success will ultimately depend on institutional delivery and demand uptake at the grassroots level.
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