Growing informal and unplanned housing settlements and slums in cities is a common alarming problem around the world. Bangladesh, being a developing country could not escape the similar experience and it is becoming an acute problem every day. It is almost an accepted fact that the problem of housing for low incomes will be continued as with the process of industrialization and thus with urbanization. Historically and still today, a continuous effort has been put for solutions in many ways, by many times in many places globally. But the question is why the world is not getting out of the problem? And interestingly, not only the developing countries but also why the developed countries yet are facing this problem? If the origin of the problem is not addressed then it will be recurring in this way or that way. It is important to research the origin of the problem to make sustainable strategies towards sustainable development of a nation and thus for the sustainability of the globe. Human is the key element of sustainable development and if businesses cannot contribute to human welfare then the sustainability of businesses might fall under a big question. It seems that the housing problem for low-income groups is not just a matter of some digits or numbers. Otherwise, the problem would not prevail everywhere in the world and especially in the developed countries. In addition, housing is not just a product but a complex process or in other words, it is a complex function of economy, social and environment. It is not the actual disease but a symptom of the disease. It is likely that relationship exists between housing problem for urban low incomes and sustainable business models for an accumulated sustainable development in overall. If any such relationship really exists, then how such relationship model can be used for strengthening the businesses by holistic approaches to sustainable strategies for overall inclusive benefit? In year 2016, International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in its report, Barriers Constraining The Low And Middle-Income Housing Finance Market In Bangladesh, mentioned that Dhaka had 18.9 million people in 2011 and the projected figure is 27.4 million by the year 2030 with the projected growth rate of 4.3%. It was also predicted in that report that Bangladesh would need to construct approximately 8.5 million new houses in the next five years to overcome the existing shortage in urban areas and to meet the future demands of housing concentrated in the need of lower and lower-middle income groups. But how much sustainable such supply-side approaches would be by just filling up the numerical gaps of housing for urban low incomes? Without proper research on the problem from demand-side perspectives and without reviewing the concern group’s needs and wants it might be impossible to get a sustainable solution. Such research might broaden the scopes to link those demands with windows of opportunities for small, medium and big businesses as well as the elimination of the problem of housing for urban poor might be possible by holistic sustainable strategies.

Keywords: Sustainable businesses, Urbanization, Poor, Housing for urban poor, Holistic.