The Islamabad International Airport inauguration finally came on 1st May 2018, after months of speculation. First conceived in 2005, the project has taken 13 years to materialise, and the state-of-the-art facility is an amalgamation of technological innovation and architectural design.
The airport is the primary part of an expansive road and Metro Bus network which will connect the twin cities together. But that’s not all. The project has allowed for the real estate of Zone II to flourish in the months leading up to the airport’s inauguration. However, things might be different now that the inauguration has taken place.
This blog explores how the major housing societies in Zone II are faring now that the airport is operational:
- Mumtaz City
- Top City-1
- Gandhara City
- Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS)
- PAF Tarnol
- Airport Enclave
Market saturation
The market seems to now be saturated. According to M. Ali Hassan from Time Value Enterprises, the prices in both Mumtaz City and Top City-1 (most high-performing societies) haven’t increased further after the inauguration of the project. He believes that the airport connection was already oversold to the buyers and investors, and a marked increase was observed in the market for Mumtaz City 5-6 months before the inauguration of the airport. For Top City-1, he has highlighted that the prices have actually gone down in the last 2 months because of some administration problems associated with the builders. Thus, it can be said that the market is now saturated and the airport alone can’t increase the demand for property here.
The functioning of the Metro Bus and direct access of its stations to both Mumtaz City and Top City-1 is expected to further increase the value of property here, but this will take a few months by which time the overall sluggishness in the economy is also expected to go down.
While commenting on Airport Enclave, M. Naeem from Graceland Advisor has said that the prices had peaked months before the airport inauguration and afterwards, no significant change has been observed.
Sluggish activity
Similarly, in Gandhara City and PECHS no significant change has been observed in prices either, according to Gulfam Khan from Marwat & Associates. However, the market for both of these had remained relatively less active a few months prior to the inauguration as well. This highlights that there are more variables at play, primarily economical, because of which the market can’t perform at its optimum.
Khizer Mehmood from Makkah Associates has added that there is no significant demand for property in the market, even when there is abundant supply. He also shares in Khan’s observations that there hasn’t been any significant activity in the market in the last few months and so nothing can be said for sure about how the societies would fare in the next months.
Speculation and prices
Market prices in PAF Tarnol had also increased in a similar manner as all the other societies, however, these have significantly gone down. With only 3-4 transactions being carried out every month, Ghazanfar Ali believes that it will take about a year for the market to pick up pace again.
He attributes tax reforms and governance as the main variables affecting property transactions and believes that until these are smoothed, there won’t be any change in the mode and volume of transactions.
Islamabad International Airport is a multi-faceted project and the overall effect of this on real estate can only be understood after its surrounding Metro Bus and Ring Road projects have been completed, thus, it is a matter of a few months till when something can be exactly said about market behavior. Until then, there is expected to be stability.
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