What does Karachi have in common with Singapore?

Think! If you think it’s nothing then you’re wrong. The largest city of Pakistan is home to over 23 million people so although it’s also a huge city area wise yet in the face of its increasing population, it faces a scarcity of land, the same way Singapore does. Singapore is half the size of Lahore, imagine. So the lack of space but consistent demand for both the places means super expensive property.

Singapore, being a modern example of just how fast a country can progress, has set quite some examples for other countries in a number of ways. The Singaporean accommodation system can also be dubbed an ideal system where the government has focused on building apartment buildings to occupy little space and accommodate as many families as possible.

Karachi too is rather heavily dependent on apartment buildings because the land here is otherwise so expensive. In retrospect, Karachi’s law and order situation has lead many people to believe that the prices of property here are rather low and as such there is no genuine buying and selling in the market. That, of course, is as far away from the truth as can be.

Property market in Karachi is just about as robust and dynamic as any other market in Pakistan. You can get an idea about it by having a look at property prices here. DHA Lahore is a top-notch community by anyone’s standard and by far, it is also the most expensive. But if you compare the prices of plots in DHA Lahore or even houses with that of property in DHA Karachi, you’d be positively surprised.

As per Zameen.com’s recent blog post, on the average the prices of 1 kanal houses in DHA Karachi were 32.67% higher than the 1 kanal houses in DHA Lahore during the first six months of 2013. To further startle you, let me throw in another fact about Karachi. As a coastal, metropolitan city property prices are surprisingly low in Karachi as compared to some other international coastal cities. But as far as the local property markets are concerned, Karachi takes the cake!

How’s that for an underperforming market?