Thread by @nadeemhaque

Thread housing society. Housing societies happen only in Pakistan. They arise out of a PLOT culture that was handed to us by the British. The colonial government would give out land as a gift to those who are loyal

Corporate is the set up in law to help poor farmers come together and do things that were individually more difficult. Soon after petition bureaucrats started using the cooperatives law to start housing societies.

Housing societies would use the power of the government to acquire land and transfer it good rich and powerful a cheap prices. This is despite the fact that the land acquisition act did not allow the taking of land for anything other than public purpose

The real model for taking over peasant land forcibly and handing it over to the rich begin with Islamabad. Even today Islamabad develops through this harsh and non-market means

Pakistan is a very strange country but every government organization is into real estate development. There are housing societies in the name of the army,navy Air Force, judiciary, sui gas, WAPDA,Aitchison College, LUMs engineering etc. why?

City administrations run by Dmg have through history forbidden real estate Estate hi rise and mixed use construction inside cities. Since we continued the British tradition of gifting plots to govt officials suburban development was favored on basis of housing societies

Housing societies are started by mafias within organizations and in cahoots with DMG who give permission. It is scheme for self enrichment at the cost of the suckers who buy into those societies.

When a housing society development slows down investors have no recourse. Judicial colony is not guaranteed by judges even though it is made in their name! Invisible ppl run these societies with no skin in the game.

There are no timelines of commitments by housing societies. Their delivery dates are elastic and their commitments meaningless. Courts are uninformed and end up favoring housing society managers. Case in point Alden Khan and park view

Housing societies typically take decades to develop. They start with false promises. On occasion the initiating team has run away with funds. On others the initiator was a crook.

Take DHA phase 9 which has been promised for 2 decades and still not delivering. Take sui gas 2 which has been in the pie line for 2 decades. Ppl wait for plots for decades and still the returns are not that high.

Ppl talk of spectacular returns looking a a few developed areas like Islamabad and sone areas of DHA. What about the average housing society, the time it takes, the false promises

In many cases the returns are no high especially when you take inflation and the exchange rate into account. Then of course the money that is lost to fraud.

If a portfolio of real estate investment based on these housing societies, the returns would not be v high. On sone areas it is 2 % in dollar terms.

This nonsense of dc rate has also been created by DMG mafia. Why do we have a DC rate. And if we do why can we not use it? The government gives you a route and then asks you to not use it.

Let ppl transact and register the sale of a piece of real estate there sale for 15 days on a website. Let anyone offer more and take it. This could make the whole market open and transparent. The government too could offer to buy the property if it feels a low price is quoted

Unless inner city redevelopment is rapidly allowed and flats hi rise mixed use is allowed quickly the balance between suburban development and inner city development.

The laws of supply and demand work. The reason housing and plots are expensive is because DMG forces all to go to housing societies. Inner city real estate is locked away into government ownership (government housing), auqaf, evacuee, and poor titling extreme land fragmentation

If inner city land released and transactions made simpler and fragmentation not incentivized, the supply of flats, offices, commercial real estate will make downturns attractive. Sprawl will be prevented and housing societies go to the dung heap of history

So long as downtown supply us killed by regulation housing societies thrive. Then to feed housing societies we build highways and flyovers in the heart of town further devaluing down town.

Supply and demand of real estate sets prices as in all markets! Regulation and zoning influences these. The reason for high returns in DHA and Islamabad is poor regulation and zoning.

It is time inner city redevelopment is prioritized. It is time high rise allowed. It is time mixed use is allowed. It is time permissions to high rise mixed use are liberalized. It is time government including governor houses move out if cities leaving commerce to take over

220 million ppl living in owned land and houses will create unimaginable diesel with a myriad of problems. Flats mixed use dense living us urgently demanded. DMG needs to learn.

The current dependence on cars is increasing our BOP issues as well as our ruining our environment. Not allowing high rise and city center redevelopment will slow down country development

There is no such thing as downtown or CBD in Pakistan. Cars and government houses have killed a walkable downtown.

Why are we not allowing downtowns to be built? Why are city centers full of platforms to kill downtowns? Is that a wise investment?