PAKISTAN’S PROPERTY MARKET SEES GENERALLY POSITIVE Q1 2015

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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OVERVIEW

After a generally slow 2014, stakeholders were widely expecting the first quarter of 2015 to continue with the same pace. Zameen.com’s Market Reports, however, have been consistently indicating for months that the market is likely to see better activity if the country’s political situation remains stable, which it has.

Numbers from the first quarter of 2015 indicate that, with the exception of the odd locality, there have been very decent gains across the board in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, the country’s three largest real estate markets. Lahore Cantt and Sector E-11 in Islamabad were the only major localities to register any significant drops in prices across the quarter, and the rest performed well.

Defence Housing Authority (DHA) was the stand-out locality in all three cities, with DHA Islamabad registering very impressive numbers in particular. DHA developments also topped Zameen.com’s search trend charts for homes and plots in all three cities across Q1 2015, with Bahria Town coming in second and Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Jauhar continuing to offer serious competition to DHA Karachi in the list of the most-searched localities for homes in Karachi.

LAHORE

Lahore’s real estate market saw homogenous gains in all top localities with the exception of Lahore Cantt, where 1-kanal plots lost 5.86% of their value over the course of the year’s first quarter to end up at an average price of PKR 29,182,966.

Bahria Town Lahore continued its upward trajectory, registering a decent 4.79% rise in prices of 1-kanal plots across Q1 2015, while DHA Lahore’s 1-kanal plots gained 4.75% in value across Q1 2015. With the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) rectifying many issues in LDA Avenue I, average prices of the locality’s 1-kanal plots climbed 4.23% over the course of Q1 2015.

Lahore’s housing market was dominated by Lahore Cantt and DHA Lahore, with the former’s 1-kanal homes going for an average price of PKR 35,974,552 and an average monthly rent of PKR 129,981.

MOST-SEARCHED LOCALITIES FOR PLOTS & HOMES IN LAHORE | Q1 2015

PLOTS

1.       DHA Lahore       

2.       Bahria Town      

3.       LDA Avenue I    

4.       State Life            

5.       Wapda Town    

HOMES

1.       DHA Lahore                       

2.       Bahria Town                      

3.       Lahore Cantt                     

4.       Johar Town                        

5.       Askari                                  

 

ISLAMABAD

Islamabad’s property market had struggled with sluggish activity and largely depressed prices for the better part of 2014, but the first quarter of 2015 has brought along some improvements. Sector F-11 remained stable across the quarter and Sector E-11 suffered a drop, but Bahria Town and DHA Islamabad performed well, the latter exceedingly so.

Sector F-11’s 1-kanal plots gained a negligible 0.93% in value over the course of Q1 2015 to land at an average price of PKR 49,218,750, while same-sized plots in Sector E-11 lost 3.47% in value across the quarter. Meanwhile, Bahria Town’s 1-kanal plots gained 4.33% in value and DHA Islamabad, the federal capital’s star performer, registered a sharp 14.67% rise in the average price of 1-kanal plots.

The housing market of Islamabad performed well, with Sector F-11’s 1-kanal homes going for an average price of PKR 66,171,491 and fetching an average monthly rent of PKR 196,990. Same-sized homes in Sectors E-11 and G-11 went for average prices of PKR 62,752,711 and PKR 55,948,486 respectively.

MOST-SEARCHED LOCALITIES FOR PLOTS & HOMES IN ISLAMABAD | Q1 2015

PLOTS

1.       DHA Islamabad                

2.       Bahria Town                      

3.       Sector B-17                        

4.       Gulberg Islamabad         

5.       Sector G-14                        

HOMES

1.       DHA Islamabad                

2.       Bahria Town                      

3.       Sector E-11                        

4.       Sector G-11                        

5.       Sector F-10                        

 

KARACHI

With the exception of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, where a small drop in prices was seen in Q1 2015, the major localities of Karachi performed fairly well. DHA Karachi took the crown with a sharp 6.14% rise in the average price of 1-kanal plots, which was PKR 33,380,298 at the end of Q1 2015.

Gulshan-e-Iqbal also saw a good 4.38% rise in the average prices of 1-kanal plots in Q1 2015, while DHA City Karachi registered a decent 1.83% gain across the quarter. Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s 1-kanal plots, meanwhile, lost 1.79% in value to land at an average price of PKR 11,250,000 at the end of the quarter.

 MOST-SEARCHED LOCALITIES FOR PLOTS & HOMES IN KARACHI | Q1 2015

PLOTS

1.       DHA Karachi                      

2.       Bahria Town Karachi      

3.       DHA City Karachi             

4.       Gadap Town                      

5.       Gulistan-e-Jauhar           

HOMES

1.       DHA Karachi                      

2.       Gulshan-e-Iqbal              

3.       Gulistan-e-Jauhar           

4.       North Nazimabad           

5.       North Karachi                   

 

FINAL ANALYSIS

The last two quarters of 2014 had caused a lot of worry among investors, who should now feel relieved that things seem to be getting back on track. Numbers from the first quarter of 2015 are encouraging in terms of potential profits as well as stability, because most top localities around the country performed well and a few saw sizable gains that could herald a good year ahead.

Key takeaways from this quarter should be the performances of both DHA and Bahria Town. DHA continued to dominate the country’s real estate markets in terms of both price gains and popularity in Q1 2015. While DHA developments rarely struggle, Bahria Town’s Lahore and Islamabad projects desperately needed to perform after an underwhelming 2014, and the first quarter of 2015 has seen that happen as well.

“I think a lot of minds will have been put at ease after this quarter’s market performance. By and large, the country’s real estate markets have moved past the problems they had faced in 2014 and this is shaping up to be a good year in terms of both activity and growth,” said Zeeshan Ali Khan, the CEO and Co-Founder of Zameen.com.

“The second quarter of the year is the time when the waiters and watchers usually make up their minds and take key decisions, so we can expect increased activity until Ramadan, when the market generally takes a break before the peak activity season around Eid-ul-Fitr,” he added.

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