Comment by Riaz Haq on October 30, 2017 at 7:30am

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Construction sector records impressive 9% expansion

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1419502/construction-sector-records-im...

The construction sector has once again posted a strong growth of 9% in the outgoing year, lower than the 14.6% increase in 2016, but much higher than the average growth of the past five years, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-2017.

Excluding the exceptional growth of 2016 and 2017, the average growth in the construction sector up to 2015, since FY12, was just 4%. Construction industry officials believe the recent growth is encouraging for the industry as well as the country because this will create new jobs.

According to government estimates, construction-related activities will gain further momentum on the back of increased public sector development spending coupled with infrastructure and power sector development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The construction sector contributes 2.4% to Gross Domestic Product, according to government assessments.
The robust construction activities also led to an increase in demand for steel and allied products, according to the survey.

“Cement growth derived from robust domestic demand, which allowed manufacturers to enhance their capacity utilisation. The outlook is encouraging on account of firm demand due to flourishing housing schemes and rising development spending along with anticipated CPEC-related projects,” it added.

Govt may withdraw special income tax

Despite extraordinary growth, the government is upset as it did not achieve its tax collection target from the sector in the outgoing fiscal year. “It is true that we could not collect the targeted amount from the real estate sector in this year,” said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday.

However, he said that tax collection increased after the implementation of the new property valuation methodology by the Federal Board of Revenue in 2016.

Dar also said that construction industry officials requested the government to gradually implement the new tax regime, otherwise it could hurt the current high growth of the industry. Revenues from the construction sector dipped to a meagre Rs112 million in the outgoing fiscal year against conservative official annual estimates of Rs8 billion.

The representatives of builders and developers committed to tax authorities that the industry would pay up to Rs28 billion in income taxes under the new final tax regime, which was implemented in mid-2016.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 22, 2017 at 10:07pm

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Egyptian billionaire ventures into Pakistan's real estate with $2b project
By Bilal MemonPublished: December 22, 2017

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1590668/2-egyptian-billionaire-venture...

Pakistan is set to see a new real estate venture – this time in the federal capital – as demand for housing keeps motivating projects across different parts of the country.

The $2-billion project, named Eighteen Islamabad based on its location, was formally launched in Islamabad on Friday and is a partnership between Egypt-based Ora Developers and Saif Group, the Pakistani conglomerate with business interests largely in textile, energy and real estate sectors. Additionally, Kohistan Builders and Developers is also partaking in the project.

Spread across 2.77 million square yards that will also feature a 18-hole golf course, the project will look to sell over 2,000 residential units – 1,068 villas of different sizes and over 900 apartments – along with commercial properties, meant to serve the upper-middle income groups.

The project also brings Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris back to Pakistan after Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding, in which he has a majority stake and is also the chairman, had acquired Mobilink before the company sold its stake to VimpelCom.

Sawiris, however, is now on a different mission to Pakistan.

“I was here around 20 years ago when we started Mobilink,” said Sawiris, the chairman of Ora Developers, as he addressed a gathering of journalists at Serena Hotel.

“We wanted to continue our business in Pakistan and as we ventured out of telecom we thought of real estate development because I was horrified at the prices people were paying for villas and apartments in Islamabad,” he continued, referring to the phenomenally high prices of real estate in Pakistan that have continued to shoot in the last few years.

According to a World Bank estimate, there is a shortage of 10 million housing units in Pakistan, a deficit that continues to grow in urban areas. With population growth at 2%, the shortage will keep piling.

Sawiris said his aim would be to expand to other cities including Karachi and Lahore, but the challenge would be to find land in the provincial capitals.

“Land availability is the biggest issue facing the real estate sector in the country. Until the issue is resolved, challenges will remain.”

The $2-billion project features a 30% component of equity, to be injected by the investors, along with a 30% stake to be financed with major banks in Pakistan. Talks of these modalities are ongoing, said Eighteen Islamabad Chief Executive Officer Tarek Hamdy.

He also said no-objection certificates have been obtained from the Capital Development Authority in Islamabad and transfer deeds will be given to buyers since Eighteen Islamabad owns the land already.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 19, 2018 at 8:44pm

Pakistan’s white-picket fences

Privately developed suburbs are booming in Pakistan. But at what cost?

https://theoutline.com/post/3454/pakistan-suburbs-bahria-town-malik...

here’s an intersection in Karachi where the road suddenly becomes smooth. I sit up and take notice whenever I’m driving on it because there’s an abrupt lack of potholes, and after jostling around the back of a rickshaw or taxi for most of my day, the unbroken surface is almost alarming. Unlike the rest of the city, the street lamps at this intersection glow bright at night, the asphalt always looks fresh, and there’s no trash on the ground. The walls of the underpass are inscribed with a circular logo that spells out “Bahria Town” in Urdu script. “This road brought to you by Bahria Town,” reads a sign as you leave it.

Bahria Town claims to be Asia’s largest private real estate company. It builds manicured planned communities outside of Pakistan’s three major cities, Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi, as well as some key properties in urban areas. Fundamentally, Bahria Town sells private solutions to the ills of a state-run Pakistani urban habitat, one in which rolling blackouts and flooded streets are common occurrences. The company’s images of life in one of its many planned communities — gated towns that appear to be a perfect blend of bland American suburbs a la Phoenix or Houston and the dumb opulence of Dubai — present an idyllic escape from the smog-filled urban decay of Karachi. “Amidst Soft Grass and Pure Class,” reads the company’s website, “Bahria Town is the force turning the vision of modern Pakistan into a reality.”

It’s easy to believe Bahria Town really is the force of modernity in a country rife with structural problems. Karachiites remark what a pleasure it is to drive through an intersection devoid of the usual urban mess. There’s no stopping or stalling because of broken or ignored traffic lights, so there’s none of the usual window tapping from beggars and hawkers. The intersection doesn’t even require the presence of uniformed traffic cop, the stalwart token of post-colonial megacities. For the few minutes it takes to drive the half-mile road, it’s easy to forget that you’re in Pakistan at all. And when the Pakistan around you is one of disrepair and conspicuous poverty, it’s not necessarily a bad feeling.

------

That feeling gave way to incredulity when it dawned on me just how big Bahria Town Karachi is. I felt as if I was in the ghost-pepper episode of The Simpsons: I’d look to my left and see a seemingly endless row of identical houses emerging from the desert, then to my right see a giant flower drooping over a tea cup. Every major roundabout in Bahria Town was adorned with either golden galloping horses or an unexplained surrealist interpretation of seemingly random objects: a golf ball, lions, flowers, and at times, plaques of Malik Riaz’s face. The roads, often six lanes wide and perfectly painted, stretched deep into the desert, splitting off into subdivisions of half-built homes that could have been plucked from any suburb in the U.S. Eerily, the entire city was virtually empty save for construction workers squinting into the sun.

I pulled into one of the subdivisions and saw a group of workers, the biggest I’d seen in one place since arriving in the community. “We’re caulkers,” they said. Their only job was to caulk between the tiles in every house; they did the same job down the line of houses. “We have about four more today,” one of them told me. I looked down the row and counted at least 20 houses on the street, half of them still in need of a paint job. I walked into one of the half-built homes and immediately felt the familiarity of the suburban layout I grew up with in the middle of Indiana. One bathroom here, a kitchen there, the door to the backyard here. Though we were only an hour outside of Karachi, where the average family can barely afford a single-room house, I was standing in the middle of some twisted version of the American suburb.

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 6, 2018 at 7:13pm

Egyptian Billionaire Eyes Further #Pakistan #RealEstate Projects - Bloomberg #Islamabad #housing


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/egyptian-billion...

Naquib Sawiris is developing a $2b estate in Islamabad
Pakistan faces a housing shortage as its population expands

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s Ora Developers will next month start building a luxurious $2 billion housing estate on the outskirts of Islamabad and is eyeing further projects as it taps demand from overseas Pakistanis.

The ‘Eighteen Islamabad’ development will feature more than 1,000 homes, a golf course and a mall on 2.25 million square meters of land. It will take six years to complete, said Tarek Hamdy, chief executive officer of the development. Sawiris holds 60 percent in a joint venture with local firms Kohistan Builders and Developers and Saif Group, owned by Pakistan’s prominent Saifullah family.

Pakistan’s real estate sector has seen a boom in recent years as militant violence has receded. Economic growth in the nation of more than 200 million people has risen to around 5 percent as China finances more than $50 billion on infrastructure projects across the country. House prices have more than doubled since 2011, according to property website Zameen.com, and housing projects are mushrooming in cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar,

“The market isn’t saturated,” Hamdy said in an interview at his office next to Islamabad’s Margalla hills, adding that Sawiris’s firm is eyeing potential other projects that may be announced by the end of this year.

Prices for a three bedroom home on the estate start at 30.5 million rupees ($275,395) and about $400 million will be invested in the development in the first two years, Hamdy said.

‘Highest Quality’
“You can develop a project at very reasonable margins” between 10 to 40 percent, he said. “The highest quality still makes money.”

Sawiris is not new to Pakistan. He previously set up one of Pakistan’s first mobile phone companies, Mobilink, now the nation’s largest cellular firm by subscriber numbers.

Apart from private businessmen such as Malik Riaz Hussain who is building Pakistan’s largest development outside Karachi, the military’s housing business has sped up efforts to grab market share. Hamdy sees overseas Pakistanis particularly in the U.S., U.K. and Middle East as major buyers and is considering launching another housing project by the end of 2018.

A shortage of housing units will boost construction activity in Pakistan as the urban population grows by nearly 30 million by 2027, BMI Research said in a December report. Construction has been one of the largest recipients of foreign direct investment and in the first seven months of this fiscal year $380 million was invested in the sector, according to central bank data.

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 7, 2018 at 4:55pm

House prices in #Pakistan have more than doubled since 2011. Developers flocking to build more #housing. #economy #realestate #CPEC (via @BIAUS)

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/pakistan-house-price-boom-2011-2...

Property developers are flocking to Pakistan to take advantage of a housing shortage.
Steady economic growth and a booming population have underpinned a recent surge in house prices.
Pakistan property is booming.

Australia’s residential construction boom may have reached its peak, but it looks as if Pakistan is just getting started on something similar.

As a case in point, a $US2 billion housing construction project gets underway next month on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan’s ninth-largest city.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the project will be run by the development company of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, as developers look to cash in on a Pakistani housing boom.

The end-product will see the construction of more than 1,000 new houses, with prices starting at 30.5 million rupees (around $US275,000) for a three-bedroom home.

Pakistan’s economy has been on the rise in recent years, seeing annual GDP growth climb to 5% with a corresponding boom in real estate prices.

The growth trends have been driven by a material reduction in militant violence, and the flow-on effects from $US50 billion worth of Chinese investment in large infrastructure projects.

China has been actively strengthening ties with Pakistan, which it views as a key regional ally for its One Belt, One Road initiative.

Earlier this year, China stepped in to defend Pakistan after the US said it would cut aid to the country. Pakistan also conducts trade deals with China denominated in Chinese yuan.

Bloomberg cited the property website zameen.com, which said house prices in Pakistan have more than doubled since 2011 in the country of 200 million people.

Developers are flocking to the region attracted by the high margins still on offer for major real estate projects, with most developments attracting a return of between 10-40%.

And demand for housing is still strong, with steady stream of new projects in larger cities such as Karachi and Lahore.

The country’s housing shortage is most likely part of a longer-term trend, with Pakistan’s urban population expected to grow by around 30 million people by 2027.

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 21, 2018 at 4:27pm

Chinese giant to build Gwadar’s first luxury Golf Community

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/307352-chinese-giant-to-build-gwa...

State-owned Chinese construction company China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has announced that it has entered into agreement for the construction of Gwadar's first luxury gated Golf Community with a Pakistani company.

Empire Properties, the Pakistan registered company, and the CCECC have signed a memorandum of understanding as the prospective contractor for the construction of China Pak Golf Estates, Gwadar's first luxury Golf Community.

The $265 million development is a milestone in the development of Gwadar and will deliver the emerging port city’s most premier residential and lifestyle destination, said a joint press release issued here.

Commenting on the partnership Mr Wang Lei, Managing Director CCECC (Pakistan) said: "It is a great honour to be working alongside a forward thinking international conglomerate like CPIC. China Pak Golf Estates is a ground breaking development for not only Gwadar but Pakistan and we are honoured to be a part of this monumental project and contributing to the growth story of Emerging Pakistan. CCECC are a leading global contractor with 39 years of experience in over 40 countries delivering high quality projects ranging from civil engineering design and consultancy to real estate development. We aim to deliver a timeless community in China Pak Golf Estates that will set a new standard to master community development in Pakistan."

Afzal Shah, CEO or Empire Properties said: "China Pak Golf Estates will truly set a new standard to real estate community development in Pakistan and there isn't a better company we could be working with to deliver this grand vision than CCECC. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr Wang Lei and his team as we embark on this virtuous journey together. Our vision extends beyond developing Pakistan's finest communities, we will change the fabric of Pakistan's real estate industry by setting a new benchmark for integrity and transparency in a market that at times can be described as less than open. Our goal is to elevate the market to the same standards as established international markets. This will result in the introduction of institutional investment which in turn will revolutionise the country’s real estate sector and deliver the quality of life Pakistanis deserve".

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 12, 2018 at 7:10am

Pakistan’s most influential man is above the law
Imad Zafar

http://www.atimes.com/pakistans-most-influential-man-is-above-the-law/

Riaz was a white-collar worker trying to make ends meet by doing different kinds of work. In 1979, he took a loan of few thousand rupees from a friend and secured a small contract in the military engineering complex. This was the beginning of the largest Pakistani real-estate empire

At that time, Riaz was a lower-middle-class man who was not even able to get his daughter treated in hospital and had to sell his wife’s jewelry to pay her medical bills. He also went through the pain of watching his children endure hunger. So he learned the lesson that this society only honors and respects the rich.

With the first small contract, he started building relationships in the civil and military construction sectors. Gradually, he started to build houses for the movers and shakers and finally came up with the idea of a housing society, one that can now easily be termed one of the most luxurious and largest housing schemes in Pakistan.

With the help of his connections, Riaz used the name of the Pakistan Navy for his housing society. Although it filed a case against him for using its name, not a single judge was able to pass a verdict against Riaz or stop him from using it.

Riaz, with the help of his strong connections in the civil and military establishments, gradually expanded his business. He grabbed land from people who were not ready to sell and also bought land all around Pakistan at low prices to expand his real-estate business across the country.

He successfully removed all the legal hindrances in his way by buying the judges in the courts and officers in law-enforcement and making friends in the establishment. In an interview a few years ago with Geo News, Riaz said that every man can be bought and that he used his money and influence to get approval for his housing authority.

Riaz established profitable relationships and provided perks and privileges to police officers, judges, politicians and a few high officials in the army,

Riaz’s success in building a business empire by exploiting the loopholes in the legal and political system proves that the lectures against corruption and discussions on morals look so fascinating and ideal on the talk shows and in newspapers but have nothing to do with reality. This is a situation where you have to pay a bribe even to get your child’s birth certificate; where you have to use contacts and influence to get admitted to a government hospital for treatment; where even getting a child enrolled at a government school requires either bribery or a phone call from an influential person; and where even to get a place to bury a loved one requires a bribe or phone call from an influential person. It is almost impossible not to surrender to the system by accepting that might is right.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 14, 2018 at 5:12pm

$5 Billion Investment to Boost Pakistan Real Estate, as Major Developers Participate at the Dream Home Expo

https://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/5-billion-investment-boost-pak...

UAE-based BMS International Commercial Investment LLC, one of the Royal Group Companies of Sheikh Saeed Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, has shown interest in investing $3 billion in different economic sectors of Pakistan, with a focus on real estate.

Louai Mohammed Ali, chairman of BMS International Commercial Investment, made the commitment to invest in Pakistan’s real estate development, agriculture and fisheries, energy, hospitality and leisure, healthcare and education sectors.

In December 2017, Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris of Ora Developers and Pakistan’s Saif Group announced investing over $2 billion in real estate ventures in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s near-term outlook for economic growth is broadly favourable, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said in a recent statement.

“Real GDP is expected to grow by 5.6 percent in FY 2017/18, supported by improved power supply, investment related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), strong consumption growth, and ongoing recovery in agriculture. Inflation has remained contained,” the IMF said in a statement in March 2018.

Total Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Pakistan surged 68.9 per cent to $4.45 billion in the nine months of FY2018, according to the central bank data.

With a population of almost 208 million people, Pakistan is suffering a shortage of 12 million houses, said a latest report. Karachi, with its behemothian population of 16.6 million, has an annual shortage of 300,000 houses. 

Pakistan’s growing economy supported by its investment sector has remained instrumental to the country’s economic growth over the last five years. With a spend of about $5.2 billion on real estate construction backed up by price correction of up to 20 percent and major advancements in the overall industry dynamics, the property market has enabled strong returns among investors compared to other investment avenues.

Likewise, recent studies have indicated a significant move in the local real estate market of Pakistan towards overseas investment, being identified as one of the largest investors in the International Property Market. Pakistan’s property buyers have increasingly secured homes and investment in Europe, GCC, Canada and UK.

Global real estate transaction value reached $698 billion in 2017, 6 percent above the total transacted in 2016, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate advisory. Pakistani investors represented a good chunk of this.

Pakistani nationals have invested Dh24.98 billion in Dubai’s real estate through 19,955 transactions in the last four years (2014-2017), according to Dubai Land Department (DLD) making them the third largest non-Arab investor group by nationality.

DOME Exhibitions in collaboration with Pakistan’s leading media house Jang Media Group is back this year to bring the International Real Estate Investment opportunities in the heart of Pakistan with its much-awaited participation at the Dream Home Expo, Pakistan’s leading property and investment exhibition.

“Pakistanis and Non-Resident Pakistanis (NRP) alike have increasingly been investing within Pakistan and in international markets. Such investors have made their mark in countries across the world, acquiring not just investments but also citizenship opportunities through various investment programs,” said Antoine Georges, Managing Director of DOME Exhibitions, International Pavilion organizer of the exhibition.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 3, 2018 at 10:40am

Housing Finance in Pakistan to Become Accessible and Affordable

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/03/29/housing-f...

The World Bank today approved $145 million to expand home owner-ship including women and the poor through access to affordable housing finance in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Housing Finance Project (PHFP) will support Government of Pakistan’s vision and strategy for housing development. The project will extend financial and technical assistance to Pakistan Mortgage Refinancing Company (PMRC), the Planning Commission (PC), and other institutions to increase availability of mortgage financing for households. Nearly a third of country’s population does not own homes and this pressure is rising with growing demand.

“This project will spur the development of housing mortgage market in the country and make housing fi-nance affordable and reachable to many Pakistanis,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Di-rector for Pakistan. “The beneficiaries will include women and low-income groups through improved incen-tives for ecofriendly homes.”

The project adopts an innovative approach including crowding in commercial financing for home ownership and providing greater incentives for women to become home owners. It also incentivizes people to build energy efficient and green homes and adopt climate and disaster-resilient construction designs and materi-als.

“Pakistan’s mortgage finance to Gross Domestic Product ratio of 0.25 percent is extremely low compared to the South Asia average of 3.4 percent,” said Korotoumou Ouattara, World Bank Senior Financial Sector Economist. “There is a significant market gap across all segments of the population. The creation of PMRC marks an important step in achieving the Government of Pakistan’s objective to improve access to housing finance in the country. The project will address the liquidity constraints of lenders, support capital market development, and create an enabling environment for a sound national housing policy.”

PHFP is financed by the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for the poor, with a maturity of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 30, 2018 at 10:30am

#Chinese investment in #Pakistan’s #infrastructure driving country’s real estate growth. Foreign investors are pouring more capital into Pakistani #RealEstate as Chinese infrastructure investment improves the country’s accessibility. #CPEC #fdi #China

https://www.worldfinance.com/featured/chinese-investment-in-pakista...

Rather than investing in the centre of densely populated cities like Karachi, foreign investors are tending to create urban clusters in more peripheral locations 

The Pakistani property market has experienced growing interest in recent years, largely due to close international ties between China and Pakistan. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $62bn project to develop Pakistani infrastructure and energy. With better access to cities across Pakistan, investors are seeing more opportunities to build on the land near these new developments. CPEC projects include the $2.8bn Peshawar-Karachi Motorway, set to open in August 2019, and the East Bay Expressway in Gwadar Port in the south, which is due to be completed later this year. Both will dramatically help to facilitate real estate developments on previously barren land.

Rather than building in megacities like Karachi, investors are taking their money to more peripheral locations in order to create urban clusters on formerly agricultural ground, a move that is known as ‘peri-urbanisation’. “The landscape has visibly changed with the proliferation of housing societies and gated housing enclaves moving along highways towards secondary cities,” according to Anjum Altaf of the Lahore University of Management Sciences. As a consequence, investment in residential property increased from five to seven percent between 2015 and 2016.

Luxury appetites
Pakistan’s growing middle class is a major driving force in the rising popularity of these gated housing communities. Luxury development projects, carried out by companies like Bahria Town, DHA City and the Fazaia Housing Scheme, for instance, are some of the most sought after – by those who can afford them.

The rising number of luxury developments, however, is not solving the housing gap currently bedevilling Pakistan. With a population of almost 200 million people, Pakistan is suffering a shortage of 12 million houses. Karachi, with its behemothian population of 16.6 million, has an annual shortage of 300,000 houses. “It’s not about the catering to actual demand or housing shortages. It’s much more about the tastes of richer Pakistanis,” Aisha Ahmad, a research student from the University of Oxford, told World Finance.

Lucrative real estate
Real estate has become an attractive option for investors: numerous housing schemes are launched with the promise of 10 to 40 percent returns. Meanwhile, FDI has also been made easier as a result of measures introduced by the government in 2013. These include a new open entry system, which waivers pre-screening and government permission for investment into real estate. Furthermore, investors are no longer limited on the transfer of ownership or entitlement to lease land unless they breach federal or
provincial regulations.

These measures have encouraged foreign investors, and Pakistani expats in particular, to pour money into the housing sector. At present, much of this FDI comes from Egypt. Serving as an example of this is a new $2bn real estate development just outside Islamabad – the first of its kind from Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris. Once finished, the complex will cater to every need of its occupants, providing everything from luxury housing units and schools to hospitals. “That’s what every Pakistani housing scheme coming from FDI looks like. They all tout the same thing: the American dream for Pakistani citizens,” Ahmad explained.

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