The housing situation in Bangladesh has never been satisfactory. The majority of dwelling
units are temporary, sub-standard, unsafe and overcrowded. The ancillary physical, social and
economic facilities and services essential for the development of healthy and harmonious
community life are highly inadequate both in the urban and rural areas.
In Bangladesh, real estate is a recent phenomenon, although such activities started sometime in
1964. Ispahani Group was the pioneer in this sector (Hossain, 2001). During 1970s there were
fewer than five companies in Bangladesh engaged in this business (REHAB, 2004). But in early
1980s with the inception of Eastern Housing Ltd., the apartment project started flourishing. Now
this is a booming sector of th e economy. Since late 1980s, it came within the purview of business
field. As a fast growing city of Bangladesh, such business was initially concentrated in Dhaka. In
1988, there were 42 such developers working in Dhaka and in 2004 there were about 250
companies engaged in this business (REHAB, 2004). Such activities were later on spread to
Chittagong and Khulna cities. At present, there are about 700 firms operating apartment business
and they have apartment projects in Dhaka City as well as in some other cities.
Over the last 15 years, the real estate development sector has made significant contribution to
many sectors in our economy. Since 1985 this sector has created homes for over 20,000
families in the Dhaka Mega City (Seraj, 2003). Additionally, thousands of acres of land have
been developed into housing estates where lower-and middle-income families can construct
their own dwellings. The Dhaka Metropolitan City has seen a new dimension of modern
shopping complexes due to the initiative of the Real Estate Developers.
Fast growth of population, shortage of land supply and lack of planning, together with social
and environmental problems in Bangladesh, make building construction from own initiative
more unreliable for the low to middle income groups. But private developers construct high rise
apartment building with vertical expansion, which requires small size of land for large
number of people. Besides, private developers develop building in the most planned way that
improves the decency. In the real estate business process, some prospects and problems are
involved. Prospect is that human being is able to dwell in, despite the fact that they have
limited land and problems are of several types.