Land margin in the city seems to have shrunk with prices continuing its pursuit to exceed the purchasing power of the majority of the population, especially of the middle and lower class.

Economists and urban specialists reprehended the heavy premium on land properties for making it virtually impossible to allocate affordable houses for the under privileged section of the city population.

According to a survey conducted by World Bank, while median income in Dhaka is 50 to 100 times lower, Dhaka's land prices are comparable to those in suburban New York or London.

Under the current economic situation, land properties within the city come at about 20 lakh to 50 lakh for each katha. For instance, land price in Dhanmondi residential area is roughly around Tk 40 lakh per katha, which is high even in comparison with the United States where residential land values exceed this price only in the most affluent neighbourhoods.

Prices in most other residential areas in the city are similarly high. Land properties in the city suburbs are available at relatively lower prices but not below a whopping Tk 5-10 lakh for each katha.

Urban experts blame the public sector for abandoning the housing segment of the city. The negligence of the public sector has drawn the private firms to fill the vacuum in the housing sector, but only in the most profitable housing projects aimed towards the high-income group.

While the emergence of fast growing private sector has eased accommodation constraints for the high-income class, it's the low-income groups, slum dwellers and the lower middle class people who are the worst victims of the towering land prices.

Sadiq Ahmed, a World Bank sector director of poverty reduction and economic management in South Asia region, said the middle class landowners are being squeezed out of their housing ownership as availability of luxurious and mid-scale housing continue its growth in the residential areas.

"With exorbitant land prices making it virtually impossible to make housing affordable for the underprivileged section of the society, a heavy concentration of homeless people has emerged in the slum areas," he observed.