Identification of issues in condominium development projects by Urban Development Authority

Abstract

Urban Development Authority (UDA) has initiated number of urban development projects throughout the country to uplift living standard of the urban people. Accordingly, UDA has acquired hundreds of acres of urban lands to implement the developments. Most of lands were found from the heart of capital city and few others out of the city limits. As per the location those were prime and suitable for urban and commercial developments. UDA has identified more than 80% of those lands were highly encumbered and therefore, relocation programmes had prepare to relocate the affected parties. With the consideration of location, sacristy of urban lands, land values and relevant other factors, UDA had decided to construct condominiums to provide alternative accommodation to the affected parties. The main objective of construction of condominium was to clear the encumbered lands by providing alternative accommodation and make available the urban lands for compatible developments to address the urban issues. Accordingly, UDA has already constructed ten condominiums. It was observed that most projects implemented have given less return than expected. For instances some projects were unsuccessful in generating expected monitory and social returns due to lack of planning and technical defects and political influence. Therefore, this study is conducted to identify the issues that for not giving expected return for condominium development projects carried out by the UDA. To achieve the objective, all condominium development projects were evaluated and experts who are involved in the urban development sector were interviewed. In addition, past records available at UDA, NHDA, REEL and CMA were referred to collect necessary information. Based on the information collected, it was found forty one issues which had been directly affected the projects. The main objective of this study is to suggest solutions to overcome the issues. Further ten strategies were proposed to overcome the issues and guideline for condominium projects to be implemented in future.