Not to be Ignored in Real Estate?
Islamabad is facing an enormous influx of population touching 3 million. However, the infrastructure and housing is only capable to support around 1 million. This has led to a mushroom growth of Real Estate projects in the market & subsequently led to an organized real estate scam, especially with the support of un-regulated social and digital media. Similarly, the carelessness of state bodies has also created a room to let them market their projects and befool general public.
Interestingly, if we talk about the horizontal housing projects, who usually market their projects with the name of Islamabad, does not even exist in the Islamabad’s territory. It will not be wrong to say that such housing projects are mostly digitally located, not physically as they usually quote. This is because, most of such projects do not possess the land ownership of the piece that they are selling or it is quite possible that they do possess a bit of land & on behalf of that, they are selling the whole chunk. This thing is further fueled by lack of customer’s awareness.
Another important aspect in Real Estate is the sale-strategy of such projects, it is mostly done through references, creating leads in the market, floating tight deadlines for the offer, presenting high returns against minor payments and offering huge incentives to a seller to encourage them to sell more etc. Unfortunately, all these tactics are quite workable these days, especially for the middle class category, due to rising inflation, declining buying power and dreams of having home, apartment or plot in urban areas.
So, How to curb these practices & how to take decisions of Real estate?
Real Estate belongs to every individual and keeping this thing in mind, it should be simple enough to be understood by everyone. This has led us to formulate some important steps that we have to keep in mind before taking any decision.
The first and foremost step is to check if it is ‘LEGALLY SECURED or not? By legally secured, it means that how much the said real Estate project is according to the by-laws of competent state authorities. In case of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, they are RDA and CDA respectively. A customer must check their planning permissions, land ownerships, approved layout & building plans, NOC’s and other supporting approvals from concerned state bodies.
Second important feature is the ‘LOCATION. As much as the location is close to the city center, your investment risk will be low and project will be End user centric. The projects with location far away from city center will have high risks and mostly investor centric. In Real Estate, most of the projects that will be successful must have to be consumer-centric.
Third variable is the ‘NEIGHBORHOOD or the SURROUNDINGS. If the neighborhood is opulent, possess developing surroundings and any infrastructural development by the Government, then your Investment returns would be high. This variable is mostly responsible for the price increase and eventually gives high profits to consumers and investors.
Fourth important factor is the ‘AMENITIES or FACILITIES. It is essential to have basic facilities plus amenities at the property. This will attract the people to stay and live and further boost the rental value.
The fifth part belongs to the ‘SIZES, offered by the developer. As far as living is concerned, sizes play a major role in defining the outlook of the estate either with respect to living point of view or any future perspective.
The sixth variable belongs to the ‘MARKETING STRATEGY by the developer. Either developer is selling the property by themselves or they have outsourced the project in the market to dealers or marketing agencies. The kind of strategy eventually will define the future pros and cons of the project.
The seventh step belongs to the ‘DEVELOPER’S VISION. The vision will explain the mission and goal statement of the developer with respect to its project approval, any experience, type and delivery. This will disclose the fact that how much a developer is keen in doing & delivering something in public interest.
In conclusion, it is a responsibility which lies completely on Consumers and Investors that how much they take these steps seriously, equally and keenly before investing in a Real Estate.
These steps will eventually define your Real Estate future with respect to any profit, returns, success, scams, frauds and any victimization in the system or by the system.
—The writer is Real estate Analyst based in Islamabad & can be reached at [email protected]
