Islamabad: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has abandoned the idea of selling apartments originally designated for low-income individuals in its Nilore Heights Project to overseas Pakistanis, according to news published on November 18.
The CDA has opted to re-engage with the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NPHDA) to offer these housing units to the lower strata of society.
Valued at PKR 31 billion, the project involves the construction of over 4,000 apartments on CDA-acquired land, divided into two phases. The first phase consists of 2,400 small apartments (each measuring 779 square feet), with construction completed and only finishing work pending. These apartments are distributed across 60 blocks of ground-plus-four storeys.
Sources have revealed that the current CDA management has decided to dispose of the 2,400 apartments through the housing authority, as per the original plan. An agreement between the CDA and NPHDA is expected to be signed soon, with a non-commercial approach taken by the CDA in charging the authority for each apartment. The sources indicate that the authority will be asked to deposit PKR 4 million for each apartment in instalments.
An official from the CDA mentioned, ‘Nothing is final yet as the draft agreement is being prepared, and soon both parties will sign it.’
Initially named the ‘Farash Town’ apartment scheme in 2021, the project was later renamed the Nilore Heights in the previous year. The 2,400 apartments were originally intended for the lower strata of society, with 2,000 allocated to the NPHDA for further allotments and 400 for slum dwellers in the city area, according to the original plan.
The second phase, currently in progress, is intended for commercial auction, with the CDA planning to construct 1,876 state-of-the-art apartments of various sizes up to 1,441 square feet.
In an unexpected turn earlier this year, the CDA decided to auction 2,000 apartments to overseas Pakistanis for USD 30,000 each, instead of allotting them to the low-income group as initially planned. This decision faced legal challenges, delaying the balloting scheduled for May.
CDA Chairman Anwarul Haq, upon noticing the issue, prioritized the NPHDA and advocated for allocating the apartments to the intended low-income recipients instead of proceeding with commercial auctions. In May, then-Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an inquiry against the CDA for launching the scheme for overseas Pakistanis without addressing legal concerns.
Sources also reveal that the CDA chairman instructed the engineering wing to explore options to increase the number of storeys from nine to 13 in the second phase, aiming to raise the total number of apartments to 2,500 under the scheme.
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