Faisalabad: A developing city with deteriorating real estate

Faisalabad was once well known for its bumpy and wrecked roads. It’s no longer the city’s ground reality as carpeted highways and main roads are replacing the unkempt road tracks. The road network in the city is widening and smaller towns and adjoining villages are also benefiting from this surprising and long awaited development. The overall development of the city has although been slow but quite apparent now.

Many posh housing societies and commercial areas are established to meet the increasing needs of the people residing here. But this doesn’t mean that “All is good”, the razor sharp jaws of inflation are dug deep in the city’s economy and also in real estate sector and even cruder is the increasing interest rates and strict loaning conditions set by the banks. All of it has combined to squeeze the life out of Faisalabad real estate sector which otherwise promises great investment opportunities to the realtors.

The Faisalabad city offers job opportunities to tens of thousands of people who flee from nearby villages to work in the mills and factories and settle in the slums. The inflation, power crises, unrest, lawlessness and corruption has made their life a lot difficult than it already is. And now the increased interest rates of the banks have made their survival even hard as value of property and rents have consequently gone up to 90%. The inflation has affected every sector of life, even the development projects have come to a halt due to increasing price of cement and building material.

Real estate experts believe that the increased interest rates setby banks are forcing the investors to remain inactive in the real estate and therefore there is hardly an activity seen in the property market. It is reported that the property prices in Faisalabad have witnessed a 100% increase in last 5 years. And the smaller investors and businessmen do not afford to spend over 4 million Rs. for a 10marla residential plot and that too in less posh area of the city. The rents have seen a 90% increase over the last three years. Similar is the case for mortgage.

The inflation and increasing recession is sucking the life out of the middle and lower middle class in Faisalabad. The tenants are forced to shift to smaller rooms and live in terrible conditions because the increasing rents have made a decent accommodation out of their reach. It feels terrible to see Faisalabad, the city which generates a big chunk of revenue for the country’s economy, withering away due to poor management of resources and ever increasing inflation.

Source: Zameen