Karachi soars above Lahore, Islamabad in property prices
The ongoing Rangers operation has curbed crime rate in Karachi
KARACHI (Dunya News/Reuters) – Land price has surged significantly in Sindh metropolitan since start of 2016 with 24 percent hike in a 500 yard plot’s price, Dunya News reported Tuesday.
Sindh’s capital has beaten the federal capital and Punjab’s heartland Lahore in land prices.
The ongoing Rangers operation has curbed crime rate in target killing-notorious Karachi. Experts have declared the price hike an indicator of bettered environment in Karachi.
As per statistics of Zameen.com, price of 500 yard residential plot in Gulshan Iqbal area has hit Rs 2.71 crore while in DHA, Rs 3.95 crore with 14 percent hike.
500 yard residential plot in Lahore’s Bahria Town has increased 19 percent to Rs 1.27 crore while that in Wapda Town Rs 1.64 crore with four percent rise.
In Islamabad, residential plot of the same size in F-11 has seen 15 percent rise taking the price to Rs 5.71 crore and 11 percent in DHA with Rs 1.36 crore.
Karachi property prices jumped 23 percent last year to a record high, outpacing other large cities and the national average of 10 percent, data from property website Zameen.com showed. The clampdown also has a growing number of supporters, not least among a business community long frustrated by Karachi s reputation for high rates of crime.
SUSTAINABLE BOOM OR A BUBBLE?
Rising demand for property in Karachi may not reflect the Pakistani economy as a whole.
It grew at 4.2 percent in the year to June 2015, against a central bank target of 5.1 percent and below the 6 percent-plus economists say is needed to absorb new entrants into a labour force from a growing population of 190 million people.
The central bank said in December that the economy remained structurally weak, with low levels of tax collection, low capital investment and a struggling export sector all posing risks to growth.
At least some of the money pouring into Karachi real estate is also likely to be illicit, property experts said, with some investors seeking to avoid paying tax.
Official data on total property spending are not available, but land prices and project starts show a surge in demand.
