This study estimates the demand for housing in Rawalpindi City and evaluates the impact of the open sewerage system on house rent. Since two different types of sewerage systems, i.e. open and ground sewerage systems, exist at different locations of houses, the house’s rent varies. This is due to the fact that an open sewerage system causes a bad smell, un-hygienic conditions, and loss of aesthetic values. The bad smell seems to be the strongest factor that casts a negative impact on house rent and reduces the willingness of the household both for owner and tenant in the ground portion of the house. The owner and tenant ratio is 63 percent and 36 percent respectively.

The study is based on a survey of 1000 households. Out of which, 702 houses have an open sewerage system in front of their houses. Multi-stage stratified random sampling is used to draw the sample. The stratum is based on the plot size of the house in a square yard. The total population of the houses surveyed is 6750 showing a family size of 7 persons per house.