Sluggish property market awaits clarity on tax regime

Sense of ambiguity prevails for fourth month in a row

LAHORE: The uncertainty in Pakistan’s realty markets remained in place as sale and purchase activities were sluggish throughout October.

This is the fourth month in a row, since the new tax regime, when markets have not been able to adjust and a sense of ambiguity still prevails, keeping investors at bay.

Data released by Zameen.com - an online property portal - suggested that nearly all markets continued to show a dearth of interest in trading activities, except for a few localities that managed to pick up pace slightly, thanks to interest from genuine buyers.



Realty markets of Lahore and Karachi displayed no break from their continued poor performance, however, Islamabad looked marginally better in a few localities. Still, it could not be termed a top performer.

Lahore

Real-estate market of the city remained lethargic in October with virtually no investor activity. However, real buyers were consistently making queries about property availability and prices that provided a slight breather to the market.

Zameen.com statistics showed that nearly all top trading localities recorded a price fall except for one-kanal plots of the Defence Housing Authority. Prices from Phases I to VI showed a marginal rise of 0.17%.



However, the widely traded Phases VII to IX registered dismal numbers as prices of one-kanal and 10-marla plots dropped 1.72% and 1.56% respectively.

Bahria Town’s 10-marla category showed a drop of 3.07% whereas the same category in Bahria Orchard dropped 7.99% on an average. In LDA Avenue I, prices of one-kanal and 10-marla plots fell 4.39% and 4.27% respectively.

Karachi

The city’s realty market was the top performer before enforcement of the new tax system since improved law and order situation had started attracting domestic as well as foreign investors, sparking an abnormal price hike.

However, since July, the top-traded localities had given their worst performance and the negative perception persisted in October too.

Prices of 500-square-yard and 250-square-yard plots in DHA Karachi dropped 1.10% and 1.12% respectively, while prices in Defence City fell 1.42%.

Surprisingly, prices in Bahria Town Karachi showed relative stability, registering a thin decline of 0.35% and 0.33% in 500 and 250-square-yard categories.

Property prices in Gulshan-e-Iqbal fell 1.88% and 1.36% in 500 and 250-square-yard categories respectively with activity largely driven by genuine buyers and sellers.

Islamabad

Real estate markets of the city remained much better than others not because of a rise in prices in different localities but due to comparative stability for almost the entire month.



Sector F-11, Bahria Town and Sector E-11 remained stable as the localities recorded marginal drops of 0.28%, 0.21% and 0.23% respectively in the one-kanal category.

Rates of DHA Islamabad plots, however, decreased 2.37% and 1.23% in one-kanal and 10-marla categories. The biggest decline was witnessed in Gulberg Residencia where prices of one-kanal and 10-marla plots dipped 6.19% and 6.94% respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2016.

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