A sizeable part of the rising remittances is finding its way into real estate investment. There are several reasons for this including very high risks in other sectors such as trading or manufacturing, absence of advice and information on parallel opportunities, aggressive marketing by realtors and the preference for property investments.

Given the current boom in land and property enterprises across the country, the trend of investment is likely to remain stable. However, efficiency in the real estate market is constrained by some basic handicaps. An element of doubt lurks behind the validity of transactions. Complicated documentation procedures, corrupt practices, weak legal safeguards and above all, limited access to information are some barriers that adversely affect the performance of real estate market.

While the sector is in dire need of a reform, few basics have to be improved without any delay. The creation of an efficient and scientifically structured real estate information system is the first step in the proposed process of improvement.

First, a political mandate is necessary to initiate this task. History is replete with half-hearted attempts to launch projects for structuring a database of urban properties. In 1990, the erstwhile Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) undertook an urban land management study with the assistance of local and Australian consultants. The objective was to take stock of land utilisation patterns, available land reserves, identification of vacant/unutilised land parcels and potential of future land development.

The documentation was aimed to scientifically predict the trends of construction and real estate development. The study had also recommended the creation of a centralised database with a view to serve multiple clients. Unfortunately, not much could be undertaken afterwards.

In 2003, an attempt was made to computerise the records of registered properties by the Excise and Taxation Department of the Sindh government. The initiative had an active start but could not continue at the desirable pace to complete data about the properties in the planned settlements. While individual land management agencies do possess records of ownership and other variables, they are reluctant to share it for the fear of losing control over them.

At times, some of these agencies fall prey to clandestine pressure which results in non-transparent transactions. The construction of a residential settlement for high ranking military personnel next to National Stadium Karachi; construction of the head office of National Highway Authority on land owned by Pakistan Railways and the construction of a high profile tower on Railways land by a consortium of realtors indicate a state of affairs that can only be streamlined through better information systems.

The recent proposal of converting 60,000 acres of Karachi’s coast into “sugar land city” – a fancy real estate programme – is still fresh in one’s memory. The fear of the revival of this concept plan by powerful realtors is still lurking around us.

The real estate sector has many overt and covert stakeholders. These include international investors of various backgrounds and their front men, defence agencies, local investors, brokers, builders, personnel of land management agencies, infrastructure development units, bankers, contractors, legal practitioners and individual owners and users.

As obvious, the status quo suits the interests of many of them. But the pre-requisites of good governance demand an effective legal and administrative framework to end manipulators and create a level-playing field for all.

All interest groups should have the choice to avail benefits. The law should facilitate a mechanism of transparency.

The next step is to collect, examine and verify land ownership records. It is an extremely complex task. The handicaps are many and varied like multiple formats and procedures of ownership, wilful tempering, concealing and destruction of some records, poor record -keeping and corruption.

However, the only way to begin this exercise is to consult all the institutional stakeholders. After completion of pre-development phase of ownership records, a process of reconciliation needs to be structured. This can remove the anomalies and complete the left- out information. A reconciliation exercise essentially requires legal cover to make it efficient and effective for a worthwhile database preparation.

The more crucial phase arises at the stage of development based information on land. This stage pertains to the variables such as development permissions, amortisation of land uses, disputes, violations, penalties, conversions, regularisations and related information. Experience has shown that this information cannot be collected without well-organised field surveys by teams of competent professionals. It is a continuous task as properties and land development schemes increase periodically.

The records available with building control authorities and related departments are also important to be scrutinised and made available for public access. Public agencies and departments, some of which are owners and managers of large tracts of high value land assets, need to be advised to prepare and publish authenticated versions of their land holdings. This measure alone can remove many corrupt practices and illegal transactions. It will also be useful for different planning assignments such as demarcation of ecological assets, establishing right-of-ways for different proposed modes of transit, densification of certain identified neighbourhoods and protection of sensitive properties.

A sound and user-friendly information system in real estate is essential to help people in their choices and transactions of properties. Much of these transactions take place in an informal manner. It usually harms those weak and simple folks who fall prey to shrewd brokers.

A well-managed information system will also help identify important pending assignments such as property registration procedures/revisions, property taxation systems, land and property acquisition for development projects as well as the administrative measures of managing vacant property assets.