Without amendments, DAP will make land and apartment prices volatile
As things stand at the moment, the 2022-2035 DAP might further exacerbate Dhaka’s affordable housing situation by limiting the size and height of a building in most of Dhaka’s neighbourhoods. The Business Standard caught up with industry insiders Architect Mubasshar Hussain and Engineer Faizur Rahman Khan to delve deeper into the issue
In the past 21 years, Dhaka's land prices surged by up to 2,740% – while flat prices increased over sevenfold, revealed a recent study by the Institute for Planning and Development. The same study also states that Gulshan's land and flat prices saw the highest increase, followed by Dhanmondi, Shantinagar, and Uttara.
According to housing sector insiders, land and flat prices increased considerably in some areas due to planned development and modern civic amenities. In the rest of the areas, the price increased due mainly to scarcity of land against the increased population – a mismatch in supply and demand.
But this scarcity of land is set to increase even more as the new Detailed Area Plan (DAP) is capping the floor area ratio (FAR), an index to determine the size and height of a building in most of Dhaka's neighbourhoods. At the same time, just 1% area of Dhaka city enjoys the maximum 5-6 floor area ratio (FAR) standard.
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The 2022-2035 DAP permits the highest floor area ratio (FAR) for areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, Dhanmondi and Uttara, given the availability of modern civic amenities in these 'developed' areas.
However, some urban planners and real estate operators are predicting a gloomy future for most of the Dhaka city dwellers as they think the DAP (2022-2035) has curtailed FAR rights of the aspirants of 'affordable housing' further worsening the gap between supply and demand.
The Business Standard recently reached out to Architect Mubasshar Hussain and Engineer Faizur Rahman Khan to get their opinions on the issue.
'FAR standard of the latest DAP is unrealistic, and it has been drafted by inexperienced consultants'
Architect Mubasshar Hussain
President, Institute of Architects Bangladesh
The latest DAP for the 2022-2035 period has set the maximum (5-6) floor area ratio (FAR) standard for some particular areas, while the other neighbourhoods of Dhaka where the majority of Dhaka's middle-and-lower income people live have been handed the lowest (1-3) FAR.
In a study, we found that buildings 4-storey and above cover only 8% of Dhaka city, 2-3 storey buildings 25% and single-floor buildings 67%. Now, Rajuk, terming the single-floor dominated areas as 'spontaneous development' or 'underdeveloped', has curtailed the FAR rights of the people who cannot afford a plot or a flat in the 'developed' areas.
Let me elaborate. Presume that a group of families, separately living on 800 sft houses in underdeveloped areas, have a plan to build a 7-storey building. There will be accommodation facilities for at least eight families. The price of a single apartment would be Tk50 lakh maximum. But the government has cut their FAR and shifted the rights to the owners of Gulshan plots and there is no scope for shortening the size of Gulshan apartments to less than 2000sft.
How many families from the 'underdeveloped' areas can afford a 2000sft apartment worth Tk5 crore in the Gulshan area? I do not see any.
Government officials have said they have capped the FAR of the underdeveloped areas as they want to reduce the per sft population density there. They have said that the civic amenities are not up-to-the-mark in the areas. But the developed areas have the amenities. My question is, did the landowners in Gulshan, Baridhara and Dhanmondi develop the roads and utilities at their own expense? No.
The new DAP will further increase the price of property in the Gulshan, Baridhara and Dhanmondi areas because of the discriminatory FAR.
Why doesn't the government invest [like it did for Gulshan] in upgrading the roads and utilities and relax the FAR standard for the 'underdeveloped' areas? Such an initiative might help the people there upgrade their accommodation facilities at affordable prices.
The latest FAR standard is unrealistic and inexperienced consultants have drafted it, I must say. Since Dhaka is one of the most complex cities in the world, highly experienced organisations should have been appointed to draft the DAP.
Who has assigned the company to draft the DAP? Rajuk's Chairman must be held accountable. Rajuk was established as a regulatory body. Ironically, the state-run organisation has emerged as a business venture. It sells land and apartments. Do you think a judge can maintain their credibility if they are passing verdict about a business they are involved with?
Do the regulatory bodies have any idea about how many people migrate to Dhaka city every day? I doubt it.
Every year, around 5 lakh people migrate to Dhaka city. They are mostly poor and they must have accommodation facilities.
The Prime Minister has committed to ensuring shelter for every citizen by 2035. Where will the newcomers live if the DAP shrinks the FAR for the people of the 'underdeveloped' areas?
Globally, it has been proved that if there is limited access to apartments because of the policy to lower the population density around a particular area, people are compelled to take shelter in slums or under the open sky.
The concerned officials should have knowledge that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman instructed architects and planners to consider the whole country instead of Dhaka city while developing planning.
Can we develop Dhaka city, leaving the underdeveloped areas as they are? No.
'With necessary amendments, the latest DAP may bring positive outcomes'
Engineer Faizur Rahman Khan
Managing Director, Building Technology and Ideas (bti)
Unlike the DAP (2010-2015) which did not consider area-wise population density, the new DAP (2022-2035), published on 23 August this year, considered Dhaka and some other City Corporation (DCC and others) Ward wise population density as per the existing data.
The objective was to keep the desirable population of 200-250 people per acre in the central and outskirts of Dhaka, which has already exceeded in most Municipal Areas causing problems in utility service connection (electricity, useable water, sewerage, wastewater, traffic).
In a single simple line, population decentralization in the horizontal direction of Dhaka by indirectly restricting going for vertical expansion.
Let's analyse this in little detail where the anomalies in the most complicated thousand pages document published on DAP 2022-35.
Some calculation parameters should be clear to the reader.
Floor Area Ratio: FAR= Total allowed Construction Area/Total Land Area. Maximum Ground Coverage (MGC) is the percentage of land on which the building can be built (usually 40%-60% fixed by land size).
Therefore, multiplying the FAR value given in DAP by the Total Land Area gives the total buildable area permitted. This caps the height as well. Because the number of Floors will be equivalent to the Total buildable Area divided by the Maximum MGC. Additionally, the maximum Units per Katha restricted the number of apartment units.
Say, if the FAR value is 4.1 in Bashundhara (DNCC-22P), for one bigha land, by using maximum MGC, one can build 8.2 or 8-storied buildings. To note even with lower MGC, the building may be about 10 storied, but the total built-up area remains unchanged.
So, height has no effect on whether the building is taller or less tall. The density cap is 1.7 units per katha. For 20 katha, it comes to 34 units maximum. If four units are planned on each floor, one can't build 9 or 10 stories as the total units exceed the number of units permitted. Finally, one building is restricted to eight usable floors.
There are two sets of FAR: One is plot based (based on the width of the front road) and the other is an area based (on which Municipal Ward the plot falls into). The minimum of the two is the unconditional FAR, called Base FAR.
But certain incentives can be added subject to the fulfilment of conditions such as MRT/BRT station, Designated Ward Play Area, Designated School, Affordable Units, Transfer of Development Rights, Block-Based Development.
However, adding these incentives will not exceed the maximum value of either Plot-Based or Area-Based FAR Chart.
As part of the process, the new DAP has made a distinction between the planned (P) or developed areas and the spontaneously (S) emerged areas by fixing floor area ratio (FAR) for the residential zones (A3 category) based on Net Density (Population Density Unit per unit land).
The eye-catching feature of the new DAP is that it allows remarkably higher FAR for a few localities like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, Dhanmondi and Uttara – the areas known as 'developed' plan-wise. On the other hand, the spontaneously emerged or 'unplanned' areas get the lowest FAR.
Gulshan-Baridhara and Bada are neighbouring localities divided by a wall.
While the Gulshan-Baridhara plot owners get 5.7 FAR, Badda plot owners have only 2.0 (Base 1.9, but if 16 ft Road front it's 2 minimum) a much less FAR.
The policymakers said population density in Gulshan-Baridhara is minimal because the plot owners there have already sacrificed 50% of their land to develop the areas plan-wise. On the other hand, Badda has emerged as 'unplanned' spontaneously leaving only 10% area for road only leaving no open space and there is a huge population density.
As mentioned earlier, the new DAP has two charts: plot-based FAR and area FAR. Here, the lowest FAR in the two charts will be considered the maximum FAR. Thus, in general, people from spontaneously emerging areas shouldn't feel unhappy with the lowest FAR (1.5 to 3).
The people from the 'planned' areas are happy with the highest FAR (4.1 to 5.7). However, the plot-based FAR standard 5.7 for Gulshan-Banani will be reduced to 4.5 unless a plot there does not have an 80ft-width road and their happiness will somehow be lost also.
On the other hand, plots owners from the spontaneously emerged areas can achieve bonus FAR as an incentive if they build block-based residences while sacrificing portions of their land for playgrounds and educational institutions as mentioned earlier.
Construction at the low FAR area also gets a bonus FAR if it is done within the 500-meter radius area of any transit-oriented development or TOD influence zone. Owners of heritage buildings and floodplains can sell transfer of development rights (TDR) to get compensation. Any private initiative for 'affordable housing' (maximum size of a unit of 400-600sft) will get a FAR bonus.
These are the positive features of the new DAP as, with these incentives, plot owners from low FAR (plot-based) areas can expand construction coverage till the total FAR remains within the limit of area FAR.
Seemingly, the calculation of the FAR is a complex matter both for the plot owners and the developers.
By limiting FAR, the policymakers think that the price of Dhaka city lands, both 'planned' and 'spontaneously emerged,' will drop due to a fall in demand. They say that people will lose interest in building a new house on a plot having a low FAR. This perception is actually contradictory to any economic theory.
Despite concerns over the area FAR which many stakeholders consider discriminatory, the policymakers finalised the new DAP to check population density around the spontaneously emerged areas where community facilities and amenities are not good enough.
The new DAP limits the number of apartments (units) on a plot to check population intensity. How can policymakers check population density if the culture of sub-letting and mess increases?
Replying to a question that where would the excess population, and the newcomers in Dhaka, be accommodated, the policymakers told us (private developers) to build accommodation facilities on the outskirts [here, outside the areas under DAP]. They often gave the example of Kolkata where thousands of people come every morning for work and leave in the evening.
The reality is, road communication and daily lifestyle in Dhaka are not similar to Kolkata. I am seeing a high possibility of a slum-like residency in Dhaka.
However, the future with the new DAP seems gloomy. But it happens. The initial period of the previous DAP (2010-2015) saw a similar situation.
Over time, with necessary amendments like higher FAR in the outskirts of the city, and revision of the mid-income habitation area of FAR, the latest DAP could bring positive outcomes, I believe.
