Dear forum experts, please could you tell me how i can view property sold prices in islamabad. I cannot see this functionality on the zameen.Com website. Is there another website or a online government land registry that i can view? Any help would be most appreciated.
Kind regards
Assid
Hi
This is Pakistan. They don’t have sold prices here even if they did it wouldn’t be accurate as they show less when selling a property to avoid paying tax!
Unfortunately, there is no such mechanism in place because it adds transparency and that somehow doesn't suit the key stakeholder in real estate!
As a rough, generalise indication you may look into Zameen Pricing Index. It's not highly accurate metric but somehow it generalises the historic pricing over a period of time!
As 1 example the Price Trajectory for I-12 indicates that on Nov 30, 2019 Residential Plot (Average of all I-12) was at 3356 PKR/Sq.ft. that is now 3599 PKR/sq.ft. on Nov 19. On Avg. an increase of 3+ lac in last 12 months for each 5-Marla piece of land, across I-12!
Rest numbers add-up to give an idea of pricing trajectory over a period of time
https://www.zameen.com/index/buy/plots/islamabad/i-12/i-12-plot-price-index.html
Thank you Imtiaz and Ayaz for your insights.
This makes things a little awkward for an overseas property investor. Without the ability to check comparable sold prices for properties similar to the one that is being considered for purchase, what do experienced local property investors in Islamabad do, to establish realistic pricing before negotiating the sale price with a seller?
I appreciate there are many subjective factors that can be considered based on location, access to amenities and property condition. However, I am keen to find out more about how an experienced property investor collates empirical data on property pricing, beyond the generalized data available on zameen.com, before going ahead with a negotiation. Are there offline sources, or other private property investor groups that I need to access for this level of information?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Assid sb,
no hard and fast rule: Just a combination of data/info gathered from different sources to reach a conclusion
-- Online (Zameen/Olx extra)
-- Visiting the site and cross check from various dealers present there.
-- Call to check, Buying Price, Selling Price. An agent in 99.9% cases will quote significant difference if you wanna sell to him or if you wanna buy from him, exact same or adjacent plot.
Typical Claims if you sell to him (Sir yeh plot depression main hai) and if you wanna buy exact same plot (Sir yeh heighted/level plot hai).
Its just like when you negotiate your travel fare with a Local Cab Driver without Ride Metering!!
Best deal (theoretically) is the one in which you sit with guy that have his name/CNIC on transfer letter! Not fool proof but makes it realistic to market value, somehow!
Happened to me recently, wanted to check the prices in a street where my plot is in Bani Gala. Checked a couple of plots all of them were asking for 6 to 6.5 lacs per marla nearby my street. The dealers were just simply giving opinions sir ye bht best jaga hai ap ly len after 6 months hum 5 lac ya 10 lac profit py sale kar den gy. Than I went to show mine and one of them said its dead end of the street, depression hai.
To be honest we can hardly find an honest dealer in Pakistan. I am not saying its impossible but hardly 5 out 50/100 are good and honest.
Thank you for the reality check! I’ll have to be extremely cautious going forward.
You have to do your own research. Speak to different agents and let them do the taking.
The agent at the time will tell you it’s the best deal where as if you was trying to sell then same old excuses. Markets gone down no body wants to buy, blah blah.
Assid, there is no golden rule when it comes to price negotiation in Pakistan. Parity between buying and selling price is high. Now dealers are not dealers anymore, they don't facilitate deals fairly. They are pseudo-investors, who add their "top" to the price, and therefore, have a huge incentive to bring the seller to the lowest and the (genuine) buyer to the highest price level, and they keep the difference. Easy money.
This topic has been discussed at length at another thread so I won't repeat it.
The best way to reach at fair price is to come to Pakistan, do your own search, meet with multiple dealers and do not rush to decision. Always take your time and consult some informed person before closing.
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Still there exists good out of bad in dealership.
DHA property dealing office in DHA-1, has clean, fair and cheap deals without any " top" greed. If buying DHA property, straight go to the DHA property exchange to make the best deal amid property marketing forces.
There may be no 'Top' in those official/authorised dealerships. However, there is no guarantee that some 'Top' crap will not be sold by exploiting the name/affiliation ...
BE/BT/DH/etc. full of folks that will charge no Top from customers as their 'Top' only comes from developer to get the dirty stuff done on developers behalf!
Unfortunately, in PAK 'Good' + 'Dealerahip' can only be neighbours in a sentence and that's pretty much it! Here global Brand's (Honda/Toyota) Dealership does a day light robery, rest doesnt matter pretty much to establish any trust!
*Personal view & experience, I would agree on your right to disagree ...
In Pakistan property bzness is dirty game. We can talk only on comparative terms.
Secondly, looking into the projected ROI, I myself always know the top crap and buy the property, very well knowing that I am paying 1-2 lacs more than it's worth. Good buyout takes few months to make " top" even. It is an integral part of Pak dealership, no avoidance!
It is just a good field work b4 closing a deal. It takes only a couple of weeks of home work and you know factual price .
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