LAHORE – Worsening smog situation in Lahore has adversely affected the real estate business as property rates continue to plunge in the provincial capital due to decreasing interest of investors and buyers.
Air pollution, which caused around seven million deaths across the world in one year, has surged to historic level with Lahore topping the chart of world’s most polluted cities for several consecutive days.
Latest data available on the Swiss monitoring agency, IQAir, shows Lahore is again most polluted city in the world on November 9 as air quality recorded as hazardous with AQI standing at 553.
PM2.5 concentration in Lahore is currently 67.3 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value
Smog has sparked various respiratory diseases in the city of over 14 million people, forcing the government to shut schools and colleges. It has also made the facemask mandatory in Lahore and other cities of Punjab.
In latest development, it has closed parks and tourist places such as Shalimar Gardens and Lahore Mosque, besides suspending various sports activities.
After health, businesses, including real estate, have started feeling the heat as number of buyers and investors dropped significantly due to air pollution, causing decline in property rates.
Mujahid, a real estate agent in Bismillah Housing Society in Manawan area of Lahore, said people are forced to decrease their demands for their residential and commercial plots as Smog has affected the selling-buying activity as buyers are avoiding unnecessary travel to keep themselves safe.
“We were demanding Rs1 million to Rs1.3 million per marla tor a three-marla plot in Usman Block back in August of this year but now buyers are not interested to purchase them even at Rs800,000 or Rs900,000 per marla these day due to increasing Smog,” he said
Kashif Ali, an property dealer in South Lahore, said some of the investors are mulling to make investment in other cities where air quality is comparatively better as buyers are now more concerned about the health of their family.
Furthermore, sale and purchase activity in property in high-end areas such as Gulberg has also declined, causing a decreasing in rates.
A potential buyer named Musa told he along with is family shifted in Lahore a couple of years ago due to his job, adding that he was planning to buy a plot and construct a house for them in the city.
“However, Smog has changed my mind and now I am planning to send my wife and children back to my hometown as I have to spend a major chunk of my salary for medicines of children, who are more vulnerable to air pollution,” he said.
