The 2024 edition of the REHAB fair, the biggest exhibition of the housing sector, will begin in Dhaka on December 23.

The five-day exposition will be organised at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka's Agargaon and it will continue until December 27.

This year's REHAB fair will have 220 stalls where seven will be occupied by gold sponsors, 18 by co-sponsors, 18 by building material companies and 10 by financial investment institutions.

Md Wahiduzzaman, president of the Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), shared the information at a press conference organised at the Cirdap auditorium in Dhaka today.

At the event, the REHAB president also highlighted the sector's current problems.

The new Detailed Area Plan (DAP)—prepared by the state development coordinator Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk)—is the biggest problem of the housing sector at present, he said.

In 2022, the Rajuk made it mandatory for the realtors to follow the new DAP for developing urban housing projects, he said.

In the new DAP, the floor area ratio—the measurement of a building's floor area to the land size—has been reduced inappropriately, he said.

If the new floor area ratio is maintained, the height of most buildings in Dhaka will decrease, leading to a spike in flat prices and house rents, Wahiduzzaman said.

Moreover, high registration costs and rising interest rates have significantly slowed new investment in the sector, he said.

Realtors have also halted the construction of existing apartments and stopped accepting new projects, he said, urging the government to immediately amend the DAP for 2022-2035.

There will be two types of tickets for this year's fair -- one for single entry priced at Tk 50 and the other for multiple entry at Tk 100.

The multiple-entry ticket will allow the visitors to enter the show five times during the exhibition.

The entire amount received from ticket sales will be spent to help the needy, according to the REHAB.

Attractive prizes will be given to the winners of the raffle draw of the entry tickets every day at 9pm during the fair.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Adviser AF Hasan Arif will inaugurate the fair as the chief guest where Rajuk Chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Md Siddiqur Rahman Sarkar will be the special guest.