Lahore Real Estate Forum: Property News & Community Talk : ,

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HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PLOT IN PRISM:

I am no property expert but I have been in Lahore property business for about 20 years (I was just 15 when I started helping my dad invest in Lahore). He was never interested in property because 25 years ago he invested in a plot on canal road (I will not name the society). The developer ran away with all the money and he lost around 6 lacs of his hard earned money back in 1989. The investment was very well advertised and had a very prestigious feel to it. It was endorsed by many media personnel including the likes of Nadeem (actor) and Zaheer Abbas (cricketer).

I forced my dad to invest in Lahore after I saw my friend's father selling a very nice located 1 kanal plot in DHA phase 1. It was for 18.00 at the time. This was way back in 1996. My dad hesitated greatly but my emotional blackmail forced him to invest in it. The plot saw significant increases during the early 2000s Musharraf era DHA boom. In the early 2000s my dad wanted to invest further in Phase 1 but I strongly believed that Phase 1 prices had peaked at that time and I forced him to sell his Phase 1 plot and invest in Phase 6 10 marla files. He was able to buy five files at the price of 1 kanal phase 1 plot (transaction costs were quite low at that time). Phase 6 prices saw a boom in 2007 followed by a second boom in 2012. So in 2012 I told him to sell all his investments in Phase 6 (some had balloted into plots and some were still files) and buy ten 1 kanal Phase9 files. I also bought a few Phase9 around that time. In 2015, he was very lucky as all ten of his files got balloted and he got mostly good plots in Prism while I got mostly average/below average plots which I sold immediately to buy better locations within the Prism in August-September 2015. Now my father is retired and he has made around 780 lacs out of the 18 lacs he originally invested back in 1996. He however still has regrets about losing 6 lacs in the canal road society :)

If you believe this story was made-up or is an attempt to show-off, you can stop reading further instead of posting hate comments with changed identities (we know who you are :).

For the rest of you, here's the deal. Most of us are working professionals and cannot afford to lose money as we have bills to pay and kid's tuition to settle. But, sometimes, we need to take some risks. So if you have an appetite, take some 'calculated' risks. I believe every investment in DHA is safe as in the worst case scenario you wont earn much. There's no risk of losing your investment entirely thanks to GHQ. However, within DHA, we need to make sure we are investing in the right products. You will not double your money in 2 years by investing in phase 6. Its prices have peaked (Please note that peaked does not mean the prices will never increase again. It simply means the prices will thereon increase at a much lower rate in comparison to the less mature phases.

Within Lahore, on risk-less projects, i do not see more potential of growth on any other project than Prism. Prism gains might not be as rapid, but its maturity value will be higher than any other project. Some friends asked how to locate a good plot in prism. Here's my take. I consider any Prism plot a good plot which:
1) is located in a block that will be developed sooner. It is very difficult to predict which blocks in Prism will develop sooner. Sometimes it seems that ABCQ will develop sooner due to close proximity to shuhada town but sometimes I get the feel that H or R blocks will develop sooner (LRR effect in block H and DHA stakes in block R).
2) The plot is not facing a graveyard, commercial, mosque, school, grid station, boundary wall, village etc. It’s a clean plot.
Now what makes a plot a premium plot as opposed to just a good plot is if it meets any of the following conditions:
1) Facing park (though many people actually don’t like park facing plots, it can get very noisy during an afternoon nap when kids are playing cricket in the park – however, the market has many buyers looking for park facing plots). I personally like plots that are close to a small park but not really park facing.
2) Corner (though its more expensive to maintain a house which has two sides facing the road, the demand for corner plots remains high).
3) Located on a wide road (anywhere else in the world, plots on a wide road are considered bad due to the noise factor, but in Pakistan plots facing a wide road are considered good plots).
Personally, if I want to buy a plot for building a house purposes, it will be in a quiet location with close proximity to a park and retail but NOT park or retail facing.

Hope this helps?