According to the 1980 housing census, the district was reported having 18,845 houses. On the average a house was occupied by 8.0 persons and crowding per room was 7.1. Most (84.6%) of the houses comprised only one room while the remaining (15.4%) had more than one room. A boundary wall was around almost all the houses.

In 1980, about 99 percent of the houses were occupied by the owners. Only some houses were rented out. Some houses were given to others rent-free. Renting is found in urban area only, as in rural areas there is no tradition of renting out ones house. The practice of renting out the houses has increased, mainly, due to the establishment of various government offices in the district which do not have their own buildings. Similarly most of the immigrant labour also resides at rented places.

There has been a tremendous change in construction material being used for buildings. Previously mud and un-baked bricks were used for construction of houses, particularly for the courtyard walls. Roofs were made of trunks and leaves of date trees. In some areas, pish mats are used with date tree branches for construction of abodes. About three fourth of the houses had roofs, using girders/beams and kiln bricks. RCC or RBC construction was very rare. According to 1980 housing census, 85 percent of the houses were constructed after creation of Pakistan. Twenty percent of the houses were constructed in the period of 1975-80.

Nowadays, many buildings are being constructed with concrete blocks made of cement, gravel crush, and sand. Roofs in such buildings are constructed using RCC or iron girders and concrete blocks, kiln bricks or tiles. The walls are constructed with concrete blocks. However, mud and un-baked bricks are still the main construction material for houses. Interestingly the chimneys of houses made of mud are plastered with cement to make them durable during the rains.

Kerosene oil lamps are used in most of the houses as source of light. In Chitkan electricity is supplied daily for eleven hours only (11:00-16:00 & 18:00-24:00 hours). Electric appliances are used for light, but rarely for cooking. Other villages have very limited electricity supply, every third day for the same hours as for Chitkan. Few people have generators to produce electricity by their own. In Panjgur district, a total of 2,192 electricity supply connections were provided till February 1997, out of which 1,760 were domestic connections. Keeping in view the number of houses (18,845 in 1980) in the district electricity supply coverage seems quite insufficient.

Cooking is mainly done by using fuel wood. Kerosene oil stoves are also used for cooking to some extent as petroleum products are relatively cheap in Panjgur due to cross-border trade. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is also available in cylinders which is mainly used for cooking. At present about 3,000 cylinders, each containing 11 kg of LPG, were being supplied per month in the whole district. Fuel wood is collected by both the males and females.

According to the 1980 housing census, 84.6 percent of the houses had only one room for multipurpose use. Separate kitchen was available in 38 percent of the houses, separate bathrooms in 42 percent of the houses, and separate latrines in 95 percent of the houses. Latrines with flush were very few. Houses without kitchen constituted 16 percent and without bathroom 11 percent while 3 percent of the houses were without any latrine facility.

In 1981, only 0.7 percent of the households had access to piped drinking water. The majority (71%) of the houses were using drinking water obtained from open surface wells while 28 percent of the households were obtaining drinking water from springs and karezes. Houses having latrines with flush system were very few.

The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has completed 33 water supply schemes till December 1996, out of which 22 are functional, providing drinking water to one third (33.8) of the population. In some water supply schemes, drinking water is supplied to the houses through pipelines, while in others community tanks have been constructed at relatively central places from where people fetch water. In case the source of drinking water is not located inside the house, usually it is the duty of the women or children to fetch water for household needs.

The Water and Sanitation Section of the Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RDD) has recently completed a project in collaboration with UNICEF which covered installation of 190 deep well hand pumps (on open surface wells) for drinking water and construction of 200 latrines at public places throughout the district. However some of these latrines were constructed in government offices, which may not be considered as public places. Most of the houses in Panjgur have dry latrines while some houses have latrines with flush system. There is no sewerage system therefore drainage water often stays in the streets. Town committee Chitkan has one tractor trolley for collection and disposal of household garbage but this arrangement is limited to Chitkan only and is also inadequate.

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