Real estate business affected by quake

ISLAMABAD—The massive catastrophe in the country has adversely affected the real estate business showing a stagnancy in the sale and purchase of property, big plots and flats in high-rise buildings in the Federal Capital.
Property dealers in Islamabad said that there has been almost a lull in the estate business as no selling and buying of plots, and other properties is taking place in Islamabad since October 08 tragicearthquake.
The prices of plots have also shown a downward trend. However, contrary to the sale and purchase of plots the rents of buildings business ave gone up due to the long term stay of foreign relief workers and due to frequent visits of foreigners to Islamabad in the aftermath of the national disaster.
“The rent of small houses (portions, flats, rooms) have been increased up to 30 to 40 per cent in the city and the rates of big houses and big plots has gone down by almost 25 to 30 percent,” said Kamran Ali Shah chief executive of Kakakhel real estate consultant in G-10 Markaz.
He said that the sale and purchase of plots in the city has completely stopped after the quake in all the approved housing societies of Capital Development Authority (CDA). He said that most of the owners of the plots in the capital are not ready to sell their plots following the quake.
Most of the dealers do not know what to do after the earthquake he said and added that the owners of small houses are only the beneficiaries of the crisis as the rents of these houses have gone up tremendously.
He said some people are leaving their flats in the high-rise buildings in the city and they are seeking small houses. Kamran said that most of the dealers have stopped investing in the multi-storey buildings because interest of people in high-rise buildings has decreased considerably after the quake.
A large number of quake victims displaced from the quake ravaged areas of NWFP and AJK along with a large number of NGOs and foreign media men have thronged to the capital. Therefore the rent and security of small houses has steeply increased, he added.
He said that the demand of small houses with two or three rooms is quite high and high rise plazas are likely to suffer a big loss.
Aziz Khan, another property dealer in G-11 said some well-off families have started coming to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and they are looking for rented houses. They have shown no interest to purchase land for building their houses as it is in their knowledge that these areas are situated on fault line.—INP