Real estate business is very much helpful where the scarcity of land is very high. The density of
population is extremely high in Bangladesh. Current annual growth rate of population is 1.48%
(GOB, 2004).
Table-1: Living Structure in Bangladesh
Particulars Urban Rural
Average floor space per living structure 299 sqft 243 sqft
Bedroom spaces per person 62 sqft 54 sqft
Residential houses of the permanent type 22% 1%
Residential houses of semi permanent type 24% 15%
Residential houses of temporary type 54% 84%
Source: BBS (2001).
From the above statistics, it is clear that land is very scarce in Bangladesh. The area occupied
by human settlements and supportive infrastructure in Bangladesh is quite high at 30 percent
(CPD, 2003). With the continued growth of population, land for agriculture and forest will
shrink in tandem. This calls for high density settlement either in high rises or in small unit low
rise apartments. Private individuals construct their house in horizontal expansion, which require
huge land for solving housing problem for small number of people. Rural Bangladesh comprises
80% of the 130 million populations growing at the rate of 1.8% per year. The estimated 16.3 million households with average size of 5.4 members occupy at least 86% of the dwelling
units in the country. The rural economy is primarily agricultural providing substantial income
to the population. Over 60% of the rural households are poor. The very low income does not
allow much for housing and 85% houses are “Kucha†(raw) whose structural frame is of
bamboo and a few pieces of lumber, usually covered with “chhan†or “shan†(hemp), a popular
thatch material of long dried grass, with plastered mud as walls. A few houses have corrugatediron
sheets as roofing. This type of house needs constant repair and cannot withstand the
ravages of natural calamities such as cyclone and floods. In 1988 for example, floodwater
completely or partially damaged houses of 1.3 million as estimated (Islam, 1993). The need to
replace and rehabilitate damaged houses has greatly increased the role of real estate business
in rural areas.
Since the enormity of the rural housing problems cannot be tackled in any appreciable degree
through the public sector due to resource constraints, we can only make a beginning in the
improvement of living conditions in the villages through private sector.
So, the role of real estate business in rural area is highly significant. Real estate business can
play a great role in rural areas through ensuring dwelling units keeping pace with the population
increase, improving the quality of village housing in terms of improved structures to reduce
the recurring annual loss to the housing stock caused by climatic hazards and natural dilapidation
and ensuring proper utilization of scarce land.
