Rs. 160 Billion Loans Approved Under PM Housing Scheme

Commercial banks have approved housing loans worth Rs. 160 billion under the Prime Minister’s Wazir e Azam Apna Ghar Program, with loan disbursements to successful applicants currently underway, Adviser to the Finance Minister Adnan Pasha said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the First International Insurance Conference in Karachi, Pasha said the program is helping address Pakistan’s estimated housing shortage of around 10 million units while enabling low-income families to own homes through subsidized financing. He said borrowers benefit from a concessional markup rate of 5 percent, helping create wealth for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

He said the Ministry of Finance is underwriting up to 10 percent of potential loan losses for participating banks and is also providing a markup subsidy for 10 years to make housing finance more affordable. However, he noted that the scheme currently lacks an insurance component to protect homeowners against climate related disasters and other unforeseen risks. He invited the insurance industry to propose suitable products, assuring government support through an enabling regulatory framework.

Pasha also announced that the government plans to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility by introducing 2 million electric motorcycles. He said Pakistan has around 3 million registered motorcycles that consume fuel costing the country an estimated $8 billion annually. The government is supporting the shift through subsidies and zero markup financing, although production and supply constraints remain a challenge.

Highlighting support for agriculture, he said the government recently launched the Zarqaizi Scheme to provide digital agricultural loans through 21 banks in partnership with the Pakistan Banks Association and SUPARCO. The initiative uses satellite monitoring and real-time data to track how agricultural loans are utilized, improving transparency and efficiency.

Addressing the conference, Insurance Association of Pakistan Chairman Shoaib Javed Hussain said Pakistan’s insurance penetration remains well below regional and global levels, with insurance accounting for only 0.9 percent of GDP compared with around 4 percent in neighboring economies and about 6 percent in developed countries.

He urged greater innovation, stronger public private collaboration, and faster regulatory reforms, particularly in crop and health insurance, to expand insurance coverage across the country.