D haka is ranked as one of the least liveable cities in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Similarly, foreign visitors are sometimes left aghast at how, in Malthusian terms, the capital of Bangladesh manages to survive. Yet this host city for the upcoming T20 Cricket World Cup has, some would say, not only survived but prospered in recent years. * * * *
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“If you brought a property in Dhanmondi [one of the most affluent residential areas in Dhaka] for 6.45m taka [$83,000] in 2005, that would have increased five or six times by now,” says Kazi Inam Ahmed, owner of Gemcon City, a new estate agency.
In fact, Goldman Sachs has placed Bangladesh in the “next 11’” category after the Bric countries and its “Mint” (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) group as an emerging economy. Furthermore, from out of its bewildering, densely packed capital, properties are now starting to emerge that can match such aspirations.
In the north of the city, modern blocks that would not look out of place in Hong Kong or Singapore surge upwards from 1980s-era family houses, long considered obsolete, where residents were once able to have gardens.
In Navana Karatoya, an apartment block in the upmarket Baridarah area, Muhammad Miah, a plumber, installs a remote-controlled toilet in a property overlooking Gulshan