Is Property in Pakistan Easy to Buy or Sell?
For buy or sell property in Pakistan, it is said that selling property is more accessible than buying, and the same goes for Pakistan. This is likely because, in most situations, while dealing with property sales, the sellers are exempt from paying erratic taxes and development fees, among other things. Not to mention that selling property in Pakistan isn’t always a stroll in the park. In the real estate market, you must outperform the competitors.
The reason for this is that the property market is saturated with sellers. However, by implementing the tactics outlined here, you can learn how to sell or buy property in Pakistan sensibly, swiftly, and profitably. If you have a home to sell or are looking to buy a property and are reading this, now is the moment to fill your cash-flow bucket.
Why Is It Not Easy to Sell Property In Pakistan?
Buying Property in Pakistan is accessible only for the upper class but is ridiculous for the lower class. For example, if a person who has no information about this sector goes to buy any plot or home, he is more likely to face fraud because of the no-tracking system in Pakistan.
The rate for an area is 10 lac, but the dealer can say it is worth 15 lac, as the government has no input in this cause. So, the first main point is that Rates are not Uniformed. The other issue is, that fraud occurs when a single piece of land is sold to more than one person, until or unless you are clever enough to investigate through ownership details etc.
Then the registrars or in Urdu ( Patwari). He is the person who is responsible for making the exact location of the plot. For example, on the area of 100 acres, you have a plot of 10 Marla. It is not sure in its initials to make the exact measurement of your plot, where the phase is going. The agent can take you to any random area of the upcoming society and tell you that this land is yours. But after the completion of the social project, many buyers of the plot are left bare-handed after finding that there is no area left, and the area has already been sold to someone else.
What Role Is the Government Playing To Make This Sector Safe & Sound
In the real estate sector, anyone without any prior knowledge is entering this sector because they have the perception that this sector is creating a lot of wealth. They create their own rules, just like an Idiom that states, “Whatever sails your boat.” The government has taken a particular interest in the growth of the real estate industry. As a result of this interest, additional pro-real-estate policies have been enacted, attracting more potential & reliable investors.
The government of Pakistan has taken various actions to improve the real estate sector. Persons who own an immovable property with a land area larger than or equal to 500 square yards and a flat with a covered space of 2,000 square feet or more are required to file returns under the Finance Act of 2009. The decision was made to broaden the tax base.
In 2010, the Federal Reserve Board issued a circular authorizing provinces to collect Capital Value Tax (CVT) on immovable property. It is a tax on the capital value of the purchased asset that the buyer pays at the time of purchase. Capital gains tax (CGT) on sales of immovable properties with a holding duration of fewer than two years was introduced in 2012 by the Finance Act 2012. This meant that persons who had previously been exempt from paying taxes in the home construction industry were now able to do so.
This significantly impacted the real estate market, slowing the sale and acquisition of newly constructed properties. However, the plan paid off in the long term, as the government’s tax collection grew due to the move. In 2014, the law was changed to impose a 10% CGT on the sale of properties withholding periods of up to one year and a 5% CGT on that withholding duration of up to two years, with no CGT imposed on properties withholding periods of more than two years.
Non-filers were forbidden from purchasing a property worth more than Rs 5 million after an amnesty scheme for the reporting of undeclared assets was launched in 2018. All of these real estate policies have had a negative influence on the sector in the long run. The government strives to improve tax revenue collection without realizing the ramifications of slowing down real estate growth because the industry is considered a tax haven for ill-gotten money.
Conclusion:
The real estate business is as complicated as any other investment sector because estimating property prices and future earnings is extremely tough. For this purpose, the investor must have access to precise statistics about current real estate market prices, which is a challenging assignment in Pakistan because the property sector’s most significant difficulty is a lack of simple access to trustworthy information. On the other hand, instead of examining themselves, our investors succumb to the enticements presented by fraudsters. If people invest wisely in this industry, they will not have to deal with fraud situations.
Stay tuned to Feeta Blog to learn more about the property in Pakistan.