Smart housing is defined not by high technology, solar power or gadgets but by a home that draws natural light and air, uses energy and water efficiently and makes walking easy, architect Mohammad Foyez Ullah said on Wednesday.

Speaking on smart-green housing and finance at the Smart City Conclave 2026, organised by Bonik Barta at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka, the Spacezero managing director said making the housing sector smart and sustainable requires effective implementation of existing policy, financing and practical steps rather than a fresh effort to mobilise vast new resources.

He cited the rapid post-war development of Japan, Seoul and Singapore as an inspiration for Bangladesh, but said strategy must account for limited resources and the country’s economic reality.

Citing World Bank data, Foyez Ullah said Bangladesh adds roughly 250,000 to 300,000 to its housing backlog each year. Closing the existing housing deficit must therefore come first, he said.

“How we mitigate and make that backlog smart is a secondary matter; first I have to supply, then make it smart,” he said.

The residential sector uses nearly a third of the country’s total energy produced, he noted, making it a critical area for efficiency gains.

“If we can make the residential sector smart, make it green, we can achieve a big saving in energy,” he said.

Foyez Ullah identified weak housing finance as a major obstacle to sustainable urbanisation. Mortgage lending in Bangladesh amounts to less than 2 percent of GDP, at 1.898 percent, compared with 30 percent in China and more than 50 percent in Malaysia, according to his figures.

“In our country, finance is so closely tied to making a city sustainable or smart, but we never look at it. How do we get out of this? We have to think seriously about that,” he said.

A home where low energy bills and water demand can be kept down is genuinely smart housing, he said, alongside solar power, energy audits and construction materials with a low lifecycle cost.

Location is also central to sustainable urbanisation, the Spacezero managing director said. A building may be environmentally sound, but if it sits far from services and workplaces and forces residents into long commutes, transport-related carbon emissions may rise.

“Housing has a major relationship with transport and infrastructure. It is about how close mobility is to my household and neighbourhood, and whether I can walk around the city,” he said.