An Expats Guide to Invest in Pakistan Property

Have you ever thought about the main sources of foreign direct investment in Pakistan? If not let us tell you expats are the main sources of foreign direct investment in Pakistan. Millions of Pakistanis are spread all around the globe to find a better living for themselves and their families.  According to stats collected by some reliable resources, in the first 7 months of 2018 expats have sent more than 11.8 Billion USD as remittance in Pakistan and these Pakistanis want to invest in Pakistan to secure a home for themselves and their children. A major portion of foreign direct investment is being used to buy property in Pakistan. Today we brought a comprehensive Expats Guide to Investment in Pakistan Property at Government level. To provide these Expats with safe and secure real estate investments regrettably we do not have any plans or policies at the national level. In this article we have mainly provide the guidelines for safe investments in Pakistan and can help people living in Pakistan as well.

It is even more relevant to investors who cannot visit Pakistan for years and sometimes do not have a good grip on local real estate developments. This Expats Guide to Invest in Pakistan Property will give you great insight and useful guidelines to ensure that you make safe and secure profitable investments in Pakistan.

Rule No 1: Invest only in Selected Societies

The first and most important rule of all is that you should only invest in tested and trialed societies. If one of your investments in smaller societies has given good returns in the past it does not mean the next one will do as well. All private societies are subject to huge risks there is no need for you to experiment even if you believe that it will give you great returns. Well in addition we have selected some of the projects these projects will for-sure provide you with ample opportunities and it will be easier for you to keep an eye on your investments while you live out of country. You want to know the reasons why we choose these societies/projects for you, here you go:

• They are regulated
• They have been delivering to the people for years now
• At an average they have given best results in terms of profit in past couple of decades
• Liquidity in these big societies is good
• Easy to sell as buy as selling is equally important for good profit taking

Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Bahria Town Pvt. Ltd.

• DHA and Bahria both in their own capacity offer a variety of investment opportunities
• Catering for every type of investor
• It is even better if you keep your main focus on Bahria Town and do some opportunity investment in DHA
• Bahria is by far the safest place to park your hard earned money
• Bahria Town Pvt. Ltd. is by far the safest and most profitable of all
• Your investment will remain secured even if you do not visit it for years. It is the biggest real estate society of Pakistan and holds the maximum share of investment.

Gwadar Sangar Housing Society

Gwadar Sangar Housing Society A lot of our Expats want to invest in Gwadar and one of the most difficult thing is to find a safe investment to put your money in. It is our strong recommendation that if you are an Expat stay away from private land developers for now and avoid buying open land. Sangar is ideal for investment and most safe in our opinion. In addition we will only recommend that you invest a maximum of 15 to 20% of your portfolio in Gwadar.

Rule No 2: Become a Tax Filer

Government is tightening noose around non-filers so it is very important that you must file your taxes immediately. On a more personal note if you are working abroad, chances are that you file your tax returns regularly, therefore it doesn’t hurt you as you will only pay for any profits you make in Pakistan on your property. A lot of Expats are confused about filing of Tax returns in Pakistan and some fear that our system is not fair. I do not agree though, i believe that while local tax filers may face some issues because of complicated systems involved in tax filing but we must remember that the system is still evolving however for the Expats it is very crystal clear and offers great financial benefits. On every major transaction you will save hundreds of thousands and it only costs 10000 PKR a year to file your taxes. Unlike before now you cannot become a tax filer at any time of the year, you must submit it by the end of tax year and if you fail to do so, all transactions you do in that year will be considered as non-filer transactions and you will pay extra taxes.

Rule No 3: Prefer Mid and Long Term Trading

As an Expat it may be hard to visit Pakistan every few months unless you are based in Dubai or may be Middle East. In addition every time when you come to buy or sell property, you incur huge transport expenses. So unless you have a huge number of assets, it is best that you prefer investments which will give you returns in 2 to 5 years at least. One year is the minimum you should look at and that too only if you are getting substantial profits.

Rule No 4: Avoid Investing in Houses

It has noticed generally that a lot of Expats looking to buy houses in Pakistan either for investment or as a holiday home. I mean seriously no matter how rich you are spending money on unproductive assets is just lame. While the plots appreciate over time in price the Houses depreciate as the construction gets older. Also if you have purchased it as a holiday home you will have to pay a substantial amount every year for its maintenance.

Even if you rent your house out it is not worth it as the returns usually are even less than 3% annually. I always recommend that buy commercial properties for rental purposes or apartments.

Rule No 5: Bypass Marketing Gimmickries

Unfortunately Expats are an easy target of high end marketing campaigns and a lot of developers take advantage of their lack of on ground knowledge and information. If you keep yourself limited to recommend areas as suggested above you do not need to worry much. However if you are willing to take higher risk than make sure that you do not fall in to the hands of those marketing geniuses.

Best to go for third party consultants who can provide you with an in-depth neutral analysis and offer you comparisons of various projects in the market and more services than what you are getting when you purchase directly.

If you have any queries contact Apex Group “Converting Dreams into Relaity”