One of the questions I get asked frequently is about the current situation with properties bahria enclave islamabad apartments available for sale in Pakistan.
It is believed that the Pakistan housing market for residential properties, just like the ones across all Western countries are greatly in the grip of Global Financial Crisis.
The economic boom that began in 2003 came to a complete stop in the year 2008.
The hardest hit were those with mortgages that were large when interest rates increased as job stability was at risk. The previous 3 or four years saw a lot of people giving seminars on how much (paper) profits they made by buying houses with no or minimal deposits.
Like any investment, numbers on paper are meaningless until they are realized when they are sold. When things started to fall into the red, investors realized they were living in a fantasy.
Investors were in danger when developers pushed the wall, and rental guarantees were deemed useless.
Print media properties for advertising to be sold in Pakistan witnessed a massive rise in mortgage sales.
When speculators left the market and properties struggled to find buyers.
Properties to be sold in Pakistan was once an obsession of the nation to becoming not of much interest to anyone other buyers than owners/occupiers.
In the last 4 years, the financial market has become more difficult to obtain and the city’s skylines are without construction cranes.
Three and a half years on and there are many market analysts predicting another negative decline in the value of residential properties in Pakistan.
We’re still far from the conclusion of the GFC however Pakistan has weathered the storm better than other countries and we’re seeing confidence rising, especially in Auckland.
The cost of living has risen in several city fringe suburbs to levels that are higher than the high in 2007. The question of whether this is sustainable is the subject of a heated opinions of ‘experts’.
As the expectations shift I think we are witnessing people shifting from big homes in their own property, typically located in suburbs, to a increasingly “European” lifestyle of apartments or terrace houses near entertainment and jobs located in the CBD.
This is why I think we are seeing an ongoing trend in properties for sale in Pakistan towards smaller , more “lock up and leave” kind of properties.
Since there’s an average of 2 to 3 years delay between making the decision to build and the availability of multi-unit or multiple-storey developments that are available for occupancy for more I think that the value of terrace and apartment homes will experience a dramatic increase in value in the coming years.
Investors who are moving right now, I believe, will reap very positive returns on capital invested.