Online Desk: Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh (Rehab) on Tuesday demanded the formation of a ‘monitoring cell’ to determine the prices of construction materials and product quality.

Rehab leaders made this demand in a view exchange meeting with the State Minister of Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu at his office at the Secretariat.

Rehab president Md Wahiduzzaman led the delegation where senior vice president Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan, vice president (1st) former MP Lion M. A. Awal, vice president (2) Mohammad Akter Biswas, vice president (Finance) Abdur Razzak among others were present.

The Rehab leaders demanded the formation of  the monitoring cell comprising the representatives from the commerce ministry, Rehab, FBCCI and concerned stakeholders to maintain the price of construction materials and product quality, according to a Rehab press release.

The Rehad leaders said housing sector is facing a deep crisis due to the increase in the prices of all construction materials including rods, cement, cables are.

They said that flat prices in Dhaka have already gone beyond the reach of common people. Due various reasons, the price of construction materials has gone up,  making it difficult for the middle class people to buy a flat.

They said basically developers take up projects in partnership with land owners  and sell them at the beginning of the project implementation at a fixed price.

Due to sale and purchase agreement, even if the price of construction materials increase, the price of the flat cannot be increased, they said.

The leaders mentioned that housing sector is facing challenges more than ever before. Many times it is seen that the price of imported raw material decreases but the price of the product does not decrease in the country, they said.

But, if there is a little increase in the prices of those products, the price is increased significantly in the country, they added.

Again, there is no effective system for checking the quality of construction materials in the country, but it is very important to check the quality for the sake of safety, they said.

The Commerce Minister assured them of considering their logical demand after reviewing the situation.