The readymade houses of Munshinganj upgrade design, go national
Colourful and intricately designed, these houses are gaining popularity outside Munshiganj, thanks to social media promotions
On a heated noon in August, 60-year-old Abdul Khalek was sitting idly at his store in Ghor Dour Bazar. This is the main bazar for the famous readymade houses of Munshiganj. More specifically speaking, Louhajong.
Khalek has been a manufacturer of readymade houses for over two decades. His store, like all others down the street, looks like a random wood shop because the colourful houses they make are manufactured behind the stores.
His artisans were working on three new houses at the moment.
"It is the traditional house of Munshiganj for generations. It is a convenient abode because it is portable. You can move these houses easily– part by part," Khalek told The Business Standard. "Besides Munshiganj, people from other districts are now buying houses from us."
After talking to different manufacturers in Ghor Dour bazar, we learned that indeed, in the last two years, these readymade houses have found customers in various parts of Bangladesh.
For example, if you have recently visited Kakrail near the Karnafuli Shopping Mall, you will see a two-storied house [madrasah and mosque] made by Louhajong artisans.
Jashim Sharif, who built the house in Kakrail, said he recently sold more houses to customers in other districts like Noakhali and Mymensingh, and one of his houses was being set up in Gazipur at the moment.
So, what made these Munshiganj houses go national? We asked the artisans and manufacturers during our recent visit to Ghor Dour Bazar.
Shahin, who builds houses for Khalek, said that the latest changes in design they brought in these houses have something to do with their growing popularity in other parts of the country.
"In the past, it was generally plain wood and tin that was used to make these portable houses. There was not much design carved into the frames of the windows, grills or doors, both inside and outside," Shahin said.
He explained that the rhombus curves on the window, which they call 'ruiton' in Bangla, are accompanied by pipe or pole-shaped curves. Sometimes they design ball-shaped curves in the middle of the rhombus to make them more prominent.
While the rhombus on the window is smaller, it becomes larger and more prominent on the doors, accompanying various other designs. The bigger and more expensive the house is, the more exotic the design.
On the extreme edge of the window grills, they cut the wood in a shape that is called 'tala', or lock in English, while the side of the door is designed to look like a pitcher, accompanied by another curved pattern they call 'nimti'.
The rooftop too has different colours– mostly red. In the past, the artisans said, it was generally white tin, the same ones used on the body or fence.
These designs, however, will vary from door to door, house to house.
"These houses that you see are 15 ft by 8 ft. All are built with 'Nigeria Loha' wood brought from abroad. One of these houses is priced between Tk3,00,000 and Tk4,00,000," Shahin said.
He also named 'super' and 'bullet' for the wood they use in these houses, however, local wood like koroi (Albizia lebbeck) is also used. But these houses are cheaper.
If a house built of 'Nigeria Loha' wood costs Tk4 lakh, the same sized house built of koroi costs around Tk2 lakh.
"You can make the entire deck with koroi for Tk30,000 but Nigeria Loha wood costs Tk100,000," Shahin informed us.
In Abdul Khalek's neighbourhood, there are around 25 manufacturers like him.
Among them, his business is doing poorly. "I sell two houses a month on average, while others sell four to five," he said.
Why? Because others have mastered the usage of social media like Facebook and YouTube.
"I am an illiterate man. I don't know how to use them. So, I don't have many customers," he said.
Jashim Sharif is one such manufacturer who uses social media to promote his business. He said in a good month, he can sell up to 10 readymade houses. On average, he sells five to seven houses.
"Our business has increased, thanks to YouTube and Facebook promotions. People from different corners of the country watch our videos and put orders for these houses. Most of these people [outside Munshiganj] build them out of a hobby, as bungalow houses," Jashim said.
However, there is no dearth of exotic customers in Munshiganj alone.
"One such exotic house I am currently making costs around Tk35 lakh. I got a customer for this one in Munshiganj - he is a friend of mine," he said.
In the middle of our conversation, one of the vloggers named Mehrab who promotes the business on YouTube and Facebook came to visit Jashim.
He has a YouTube channel with over ninety thousand subscribers.
"We give the audience an idea about the design, price, address, contact number, and promote the sales online," Mehrab said, adding, "we make both documentary-style videos and live videos. Both on Facebook and YouTube. Tens of thousands of people watch my videos and these help to boost customers."
Jashim said that Mehrab is not alone, there are others like him.
"One of Abdur Rab's [another manufacturer] videos got more than eight million views and he does not stop receiving calls from country and abroad," he added.
Chanchal is one of the star artisans. He was the head artisan in building a 25 ft by 24.5 ft giant exotic two-storied ready-made house for manufacturer Abdur Rab.
This one was designed with a verandah, the colour combination indicating its high value and the size was way larger than regular houses. The design pattern that Shahin described before is unmatched when it comes to this one.
Chanchal said they have various machinery to create different designs and patterns and match them with different colours.
"The current beautiful design patterns started to become popular around two years ago," Chancal said. "These are hobby houses. I even made a house like this for a customer in Mirpur. Another big one is going to Narail. We have customers from Teknaf to Tetulia."
He said vloggers keep coming to promote their work all the time. "Last time a vlogger came, my mahajan got calls for orders from Saudi Arabia [from a Bangladeshi migrant]."
"We build them loosely here at the beginning. When a customer purchases them, all the parts are opened and taken part by part to the location. Then we re-set the house there," he said.
He said the house they are building would sell at around Tk20 to Tk25 lakh. "We made this in a month. The mahajan paid us Tk220,000 for making this. Six artisans worked on it."
We also asked many of the locals who live in these ready-made houses what they liked about them.
Among various rationales was portability, ease of replacement, durability, openness and the relative comfort of smooth ventilation.
One of the house owners, Apu, said, "I have lived in a readymade house for 15 years. When I sold my land and relocated elsewhere, I just opened it up, part by part, and re-set it on the new land. Not a single wood was damaged or lost."
We asked another man named Qadir if it was too hot in these houses.
"The ventilation is good. There is enough air so it doesn't feel suffocating," he replied.
Abdul Khalek said he has lived in these houses his entire life. He also saw his parents and grandparents living in them.
We asked him why people purchase these houses when they can build concrete houses on the same budget.
"Because people have various issues in their life. Suppose you need emergency money, you can sell these houses part by part, maybe at a little loss. But when you are building a concrete house, your land is also going with it. If you break down a building all you get is surkhi, or brick-dust. Perhaps your land also has to be sold," Khalek gave a different perspective of traditional villagers in Munshiganj who live in these houses.
"It is comfortable and cooler than buildings… because it draws air better," Khalek said, adding, "you and I don't have a guarantee but these Nigerian wood houses have 100 years guarantee."
