PHOTO: KHALEEJTIMES/ZAMEEN
Overseas Pakistanis residing in the UAE are eager to buy properties in major cities back home as the security situation improves in the country, according to a report released by real estate portal Zameen.com.
The report shows that nearly 93 per cent of Pakistanis expats in UAE want to purchase property back home. Speaking to Khaleej Times, Zameen.com CEO Zeeshan Ali Khan said a lot of overseas Pakistanis find Pakistan's flourishing real estate market the 'best bet' for investing capital.
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Data reveals that overseas Pakistanis remitted $3.19 billion in the first two months (July and August) of the current financial year 2015-'16; a year-on-year growth of 5.42 per cent and a major portion of this amount was received from the Gulf countries including $483.29 million and $319.15 million from Saudi Arabia and the UAE respectively.
PHOTO: KHALEEJTIMES/ZAMEEN"With remittances going up steadily, more capital is likely to be pumped into the property sector. As always, a large chunk of this investment is expected to come from the Middle East. In fact, more than 60 per cent of the $18.4 billion remitted last year came from Pakistani workers in the GCC, particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia," Khan said.
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Based on the number of inquiries, the data reveals that Bahria Town Lahore and Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore are the top two preferred locations for Pakistani expatriates in UAE, followed by Bahria Town Rawalpindi and DHA Islamabad, which are then followed by DHA Karachi and Bahria Town Karachi.
Fifty-four per cent of Pakistani expats prefer to invest in plots and 37 per cent prefer to buy houses whereas 9 per cent show interest in buying apartments only, the data revealed.
On average, overseas Pakistanis are willing to invest Rs6.21 million in Bahria Town Lahore whereas DHA Lahore and Bahria Town Rawalpindi received enquiries based on an average price of Rs14.56 million and Rs4.45 million correspondingly.
"With a lot of private developments coming up, including an array of DHA projects in cities such as Gujranwala, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Peshawar and even phase 9 in Lahore, we could see an overwhelming response from overseas Pakistanis who have an eye for top-notch projects across the country," Khan said.
Speaking about the stability of the market in 2015, Khan said that the market has been stable in terms of rates, the overall growth has been slow in Lahore and Islamabad, However, Karachi has seen impressive growth, especially DHA, he added.
"Overall, the market activity has picked up since Eid Al Fitr and it could last until the end of the year. But we are not expecting any major price increments, like ones we saw in 2013," Khan said.
Read: Real estate: Select properties show growth
Pakistanis residing in the UAE contributed $4.23 billion, or 23 per cent, to the total remittances in 2014-'15 while expatriates in Saudi Arabia remitted $5.63 billion and remained on top of the table.
This article originally appeared on KhaleejTimes
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