DHA Multan’s first ballot – what to expect?            

Defence Housing Authority Multan (DHAM) has received a lot of attention from investors and homebuyers alike. Those who have been waiting anxiously for news on the project should know that the ballot for DHAM plot files is being held today.

It is the first ballot the developer is holding to pick successful applicants. DHAM plot files are available on a three-year payment plan. The project was officially launched on March 4, and the authority invited applications for 5-, 8- and 10-marla and 1- and 2-kanal residential plots. In addition, 4- and 8-marla commercial plots were also on offer. The last date to submit the applications was March 31.

High demand, low supply

Being one of the most happening real estate developments that dominated the first half of the year, DHAM has kept the property game up in the city. The project invited enthusiastic investors and avid buyers from around the globe. According to my sources, over 300,000 applications were received by DHAM against approximately 7,000 plots (a number that DHA is yet to confirm).

Previously, DHA Peshawar received similar response, where the number of applicants was much higher than the limited plots being offered on instalments. Since the number of applicants was far greater than the units being offered in DHA Peshawar, many thought that the results had been fiddled with.

Did you make it?

Many of DHAM’s registered property agents have set up hotlines to help clients find out if they have been lucky in today’s ballot. These agents will get access to the final list of successful applicants today, while it will take some time before the results are made available on the official DHAM website.

If you haven’t already been in touch with an agent who can help you in this regard, you may get in touch with one of the DHAM’s registered dealers featured on Zameen.com. For this purpose, you would be required to share some information with the agent, including your name, CNIC, bank receipt number and the plot type and size you applied for.

Expect the unexpected

In terms of ballot, the only factor that counts is luck.

Everything else is variable, including expected profit on different plot categories, the effects of ballot on affidavit files, and if there will be a rise in number of people interested in instalment files.

DHAM has mostly turned out to be unpredictable. For instance, just when many property experts thought that market rate of a 1-kanal plot file would touch PKR 6.3 million (before the project’s official launch), the file rate started to drop as soon as it touched PKR 5.7 million.

Furthermore, many also expected that since the launching rate of a 1-kanal plot file on instalment is PKR 6.8 million, the market rate of a 1-kanal affidavit file should also increase. At the time of the project’s official launch, the average market rate of a 1-kanal affidavit file was PKR 5.4 million. Unlike how some people expected, the rate started to plunge and it went down to as low as PKR 4.7 million. At the moment, it rests at 4.9 million.

What do property experts expect?

• Short-term investment opportunity ahead

The announcement for the ballot results is bound to bring along high demand for successful applicants. This gives successful applicants an opportunity to raise the value of their application by asking for a desirable price. Some believe that in the case of residential plots, the asking profit could be PKR 100,000 per marla. According to some analysts, the asking profit on commercial plots could go up to a couple of million rupees.

In other words, a short-term investment opportunity is about to present itself in DHAM. In order to make use of this situation where many active investors may be looking to make some quick bucks, you would require more than luck. Therefore, keep in touch with the market.

• Watch out for the plunges

This sentiment rests on the fact that successful applicants will have a limited time to cash on their luck. It will not be long before DHA will ask successful applicants to make their down payments.

In any housing society, the activation of the payment plan is the time when many short-term investors exit a project. With many sellers becoming active in the market, rates are bound to plunge. The drop in rates does not affect long-term investors and genuine buyers, but it does harm the interest of short-term investors who fail to gauge the situation correctly.

• Keep a tab on affidavit files too

Just when property rates of 1-kanal affidavit files in DHAM Phase-I started to go up ahead of the project’s official launch, rates of 1-kanal files in DHAM Phase-I Extension also shot up. In other words, due to the trade activity that is expected to begin after the announcement of the ballot results, the rates of affidavit files will increase. The rates of these affidavit files have already seen major drops, which makes them ready to prepare for another jump.

I would like to know what you would do with your plot file if you turned out successful in today’s ballot. Let me know through your comments.