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| Real estate property under construction is seen near the Dubai Marina in this file photo.—Reuters |
KARACHI: Pakistanis remained in pursuit of real estate in Dubai in the first quarter of 2015 as third biggest amount of foreign property transactions $379 million came from Pakistani nationals.
Pakistanis purchased properties worth over $4.3 billion (16bn dirhams) in 2013 and 2014 in Dubai.
Read: Pakistanis bought property worth 16bn dirhams in Dubai
According to data released by Dubai Land Department in April 2015, Pakistani nationals made transactions worth $379m (1.392 billion dirhams) during the first quarter of 2015.
In terms of investor numbers, however, Pakistanis stood second with a total of 953 investors, only behind Indians with over 1,000 investors.
Also read: Capital flight to Gulf states worries govt
Pakistanis also make up the second largest non-Arab nationality in the UAE.
In a January market sentiment survey by Zameen.com, a Pakistan’s property portal, a large number of respondents said they only wanted to invest in Pakistan. However, 49pc of participants who wanted to invest abroad wished to buy property in Dubai.
Bayut.com, a Dubai-based property portal, shared some insights from its UAE real estate market database.
Explore more: The lure of Dubai property market
The figures divulged by Bayut.com registered a quarter-on-quarter (Q1’14 to Q1’15) hike in searches originating from Pakistan regarding buying property in Dubai. Pakistanis’ searches for buying property in Dubai went up to 87.29pc in Q1 2015 from 85.40pc in Q1 2014, suggesting an increased intent of buying rather than renting property.
Bayut data revealed that there were more Pakistanis searching for apartments up for sale in Q1 2014 (82.94pc) than villas (14.54pc). However, there was a drastic shift in the search trend in Q1 2015, as a whopping 24.42pc of searches from Pakistan related to the villa segment, while the searches for apartments dropped to 24.42pc.
Haider Ali Khan, Bayut.com CEO and Co-founder of Zameen.com, said the trend hinted at rising fortunes of Pakistanis and that higher end properties, like villas and town houses in Dubai were now within the reach of many more Pakistani individuals.
Also read: UAE minister warns Pakistan of ‘heavy price for ambiguous stand’ on Yemen
The data also revealed a significant rise in the searches related to office spaces up for sale, going up from 1.19pc in Q1 2014 to 5.22pc in Q1 2015.
Again, this hinted at an increasing inclination of Pakistani businessmen to set up offices in Dubai, especially in the face of opportunities being presented by the approaching Expo 2020, Bayut added.
Area-wise, most Pakistanis hunted properties in the top luxury segment, with 55.73pc of Q1 2015 searches dedicated to apartments in Dubai Marina area, a top choice locality for expats commanding average price of 2,262,334 dirhams (Rs62 million).
Downtown Dubai, where average apartment prices hover around 3,364,547 dirhams (Rs94 million), came in second place with 7.2pc of searches focused on the area.
In the villa and townhouse segments, most Pakistanis (28.43pc) looked for buying properties in Jumeirah Islands, where average prices falling around the 7.7m dirhams (Rs215m) mark.
In searches for rental apartments, Dubai Marina was the top choice again, with average rents of around 115,000 dirhams per annum.
A mere 12pc of Pakistanis looking for rental spaces in Q1 2015 meant not many from Pakistan headed to Dubai for work, hence the low demand for rental spaces, Bayut.com stated.
It was in contrast to Bayut.com’s UK and US search trends data, as figures for Q1 2015 suggested an almost equal interest of Americans in buying and renting, while 60.87pc of people in UK searched properties for sale compared to 39.13pc who wanted to rent.
However, there was a five per cent surge in Americans’ interest to acquire office spaces in Dubai in Q1 2015, which could mean an increasing intent of US nationals to do or start a business in Dubai.
The higher number of Americans and Britons looking for rental spaces was due to the fact that a lot more westerners travelled to Dubai to work in the corporate sector, Bayut.com added.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015
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Comments (90) Closed
May 24, 2015 09:18am
Money laundering on a massive scale.
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May 24, 2015 09:43am
Most of them are in the suburb called Al Quoz
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May 24, 2015 09:57am
Rich people of poor country.
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May 24, 2015 10:04am
As businesses in Dubai are tax free and cash transactions are common, one can register business in Dubai, people deposit thousands of dirhams in cash each day in their bank account and then remit that as their profit through banking channels. Bubble economy of Dubai is flourishing on the black money of the world. Unless Dubai is not blacklisted as a fraud friendly country by the world, nothing can prevent whitening of global corruption money.
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May 24, 2015 10:07am
Bring peace to Pakistan and see how Pakistanis would love to invest here.
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May 24, 2015 10:21am
Is this a Good news or Bad News?
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May 24, 2015 10:39am
Try to find out who they are? Must be our politicians in current govt.
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May 24, 2015 10:53am
"Pakistanis also make up the second largest non-Arab nationality in the UAE." Indians investment is more but still UAE Arabs granted more nationalities to Pakistani people. We should be thankful to them. No doubt they are our brothers and we should try our best to make this relationship more strong. Thank you UAE
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May 24, 2015 10:55am
And only one Ayan ali arrested yet, for money laundering.
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May 24, 2015 11:00am
It's a safe place and there are no hurdles the life in dubai is relaxed so why not any one invest if our politician decide the future as sheikh Mohammad has the vision the world will come to us
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May 24, 2015 11:02am
@maata : Yes peace and security is the first requirement. Secondly, the government controls need to be significantly reduced with a friendly tax structure, so people are encouraged to invest in Pakistan's real estate. In short, the government needs to follow certain policies which are in UAE
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May 24, 2015 11:06am
@Zulfiqar
Well I would say good news. Many businessmen in Pakistan are setting up their offices in Dubai to access international market.
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May 24, 2015 11:19am
Let the black money go... Good riddance that this nuisance will not be a part of Pakistan's economy...
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May 24, 2015 11:20am
Properties in Karachi , Lahore and Islamabad is almost the same. If u live in Dubai,there is peace, lot of fun, more oppurtunity, no ransom, no kidnapping, no government pressures and moreover easy to go anywhere in the world. Other reasons there is no questioning about the kind of money u have. Almost all MNAs and MPAs have some type of properties and some of them are doing bussiness there and doing part time job as Parliamentarian in Pakistan.
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May 24, 2015 11:44am
Dubai is a best place to hide black money.
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May 24, 2015 12:07pm
Land department numbers are transactions by Pakistanis, not necessarily residing in Pakistan. We need to create opportunities for our expat community to invest back in Pakistan
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May 24, 2015 12:42pm
All the looted money from Pakistan by the likes of PMLN and PPP. If there were elections held today, people will still vote for these two. So in a way we deserve it.
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May 24, 2015 12:47pm
If India Pakistan relation improves, investment in Dubai might decrease.
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May 24, 2015 12:55pm
@Einstein Babar Since where UAE starting giving Nationality to Pakistanis?
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May 24, 2015 12:58pm
@Imran How come is it possible to invest in Pakistan where we have law and order situation, security situation, Bhatta Khori, kidnapping for ransom. On the other hand, State Bank of Pakistan and Govt of Pakistan is constantly reducing the profit rates of National Savings Schemes, so where we go for investment?
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May 24, 2015 01:05pm
Dubai is a washing machine for turning black money into white, so bring your load fellas, marhaba !!!
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May 24, 2015 01:06pm
That's $379m that could have been spent inside Pakistan, to help Pakistan. This is a scandal.
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May 24, 2015 01:10pm
@Einstein Babar Unless you are a native born in the UAE or married to a UAE male, you cannot become a national of the UAE.
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May 24, 2015 01:11pm
The millions invested by Pakistanis in UAE could have been invested in Pakistan if we had governance in Pakistan. Expat Pakistanis can invest more in Pakistan than the loans and grants we get from IMF and World Bank at humiliating terms and conditions. However, for that we need proper world class governance. That means corruption free police law enforcement agencies and courts. That is a near impossibility with the present democratic setup in Pakistan.
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May 24, 2015 01:36pm
I found Pakistanis specially the Punjabis are very hard working and big risk takers, unlike us Indians. Indians being more educated tend to look for job security and end up as employees. Pakistanis, have nothing to lose, hence they take chances and often succeed. This trend is also amongst Indian Punjabis as well. Moreover, the people of Pakistan are richer than their state
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May 24, 2015 01:47pm
Perfect Environment! Zero Accountability nor any Verification of funds ... Just bring money and buy a property!
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May 24, 2015 02:14pm
Part 1
I am linked with the property business in Dubai so here is my two cents worth. Most of the Pakistani customers are not politicians or bureaucrats. They are mostly businessmen and also Pakistani expats who live and work outside Pakistan in North America, Europe (Mostly U.K) and the Middle East i.e Saudi Arabia, U.a.E , Qatar, Kuwait etc.
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May 24, 2015 02:15pm
Part 2
Some businessmen have shifted their families from Pakistan to Dubai for security , living standard reasons ( No electricity, water etc.) and some have purchased homes here and rented them out.
Most of the Pakistan expatriates living and working in Dubai live in the homes they have purchased and some rent out their 2nd or 3rd property which is generally an apartment. The others in Saudi Arabia, UK etc. rent theirs out.
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May 24, 2015 02:17pm
Part 3
Holding a property for investment in Pakistan means holding its value in Pak. Rs. which depreciate against the US dollar with time where as property purchased in Dubai gives good rental return, is easily manageable through the property management firms and appreciates in value as the US Dollar appreciates against the Ruppee. In Pakistan people do not invest in built villas or apartments but mostly in plots which give no rental returns.
Secondly, somehow everyone seems to think Pakistanis buy the most expensive properties in Dubai which is not true. If you calculate the figures and the investment numbers given in the article, 379 Million US Dollars divided over 953 Pakistani investors comes out to about 400,000 US Dollars which is about 1,450,000 UAE Dirhams which will buy you a one bedroom apartment in the average areas in Dubai.
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May 24, 2015 02:17pm
Part 4
Yes there are some politicians and bureaucrats but they seem to be few in numbers. I hope this gives you an idea of the Dubai market. As we all know the Dubai property market crashed in 2008-2009 and everyone lost money. It has been rising since 2011 till the first quarter of this year 2015. Now the market is correcting itself. The prices since the last quarter of 2014 have gone down about 10% percent and it is anticipated that further correction of 10-15% will take place between the summer till the end of this year
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May 24, 2015 02:22pm
Waste of money... When the bubble bursts... And they always do.
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May 24, 2015 02:24pm
@Einstein Babar UAE not granted citizenship to Pakistanis enmasse.
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May 24, 2015 03:47pm
I know many Pakistani and Irani Baluch's are given citizenships in droves by gulf countries in 70's.Now they live with the name of Albalushi in the gulf.Many has progressed to a successful businessman. In few instances as ministers in these countries.
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May 24, 2015 04:08pm
Its a major mistake to invest in a sand castle. Readers can draw their own conclusions but I will not consider Dubai as number one spot.
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May 24, 2015 04:21pm
@Zulfiqar Depends. If assets are bought from legitimate tax paid money its good news. If it's bought from illegal money its bad news.
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May 24, 2015 04:43pm
@maata so naive.
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May 24, 2015 05:19pm
Pakistanis invest in Dubai, Indians are buying up London, New York and every other major city in the world.
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May 24, 2015 05:37pm
it shows bad policies of this PML-N govt, not at all investor friendly.
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May 24, 2015 05:39pm
@valiya then?
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May 24, 2015 05:49pm
Black listing Dubai for booming on laundered money has to go with black listing Switzerland for same.
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May 24, 2015 05:53pm
Dubai property isn't a good investment .But safe way to hide your
Black money.
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May 24, 2015 06:03pm
Anybody would be interested to invest is a safe country like UAE. News would have been if UAE nationals invested money in Pakistan.
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May 24, 2015 06:18pm
This should be an eye opener for our honest leaders and protectors of country.
What is going on?
Is some on listening?
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May 24, 2015 06:36pm
Nice very good. Pakistanis got money.
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May 24, 2015 07:00pm
@A shah how do you know?
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May 24, 2015 07:08pm
rich peace loving Pakistani are migrating from troubled waters of Pakistan to prosperous ,& secure Dubai.
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May 24, 2015 07:11pm
who are these people? politicians and their family and friends.
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May 24, 2015 07:20pm
Restore peace in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan, you'll see all these Pakistani investments that are going overseas and to Dubai in particular, will return to Pakistan. But I'm told they (PMLN and PPP) are not interested.
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May 24, 2015 08:43pm
@Syed Ganga Din - "sand castle"!!!
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May 24, 2015 09:05pm
@Abdul Hai True
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May 24, 2015 09:33pm
@A shah; Sure!
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May 24, 2015 09:54pm
My folks bought a place on the Jumeirah Palm. Best investment ever. It's worth almost 3 times what we bought it for before it was ready back in 2002.
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May 24, 2015 09:57pm
In an a year or so property market i Dubai will crash .Following USA and Iran deal( lifting of sanctions) commercial activities will be slashed, there will be no need to route goods to mIran through Dubai, there will not be enough people in Dubai to occupy apartments and villas, new ports Iran and Pakistan will share lot of goods to and from central asia, pakistan , Iran and China. Pakistanis dont mind taking risk because there money is through corruption and tax steeling
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May 24, 2015 09:57pm
$379 Millions in 3 months? WOW! must be Pakistani politicians who are buying these properties.
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May 24, 2015 10:05pm
@Dr GM Baluch especially Bahrain
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May 24, 2015 10:09pm
Just a straight question, deserving straight answer. Does anyone in the government care how this much money is being laundered ? Is there no one in national assembly to ask this question ?
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May 24, 2015 10:18pm
In a way it is good that people from Pakistan are investing in Dubai, because if they had invested in the Property in Pakistan, that would have almost doubled the price of properties in Pakistan which is already out of reach for many genuine buyer who want to buy a house in Pakistan but can not afford to buy, due to money poured in from investors have made buying property within Pakistan even for Overseas Pakistanis difficult. An average good house in a good neighborhood like in Islamabad E or F sector (Comparable to UAE or USA) now costs 6crore or $600,000 US dollars and above. Which is more than an average house in USA, which costs $250,000 in many states.
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May 24, 2015 10:28pm
The culprits who have ill-gotten money behind purchasing property in Dubai. All those who have properties in Dubai must be investigated. Duabi has become a hub of corrupt people where they find luxurious shelters.
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May 24, 2015 10:37pm
Bulk of the money is our nations which was not used on the people but siphoned to make other nation rich.
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May 24, 2015 10:39pm
Living as guests not nationals.
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May 24, 2015 11:18pm
Land dept only sees passports. Most people have residences and are exists here unlike most people think. There is due deligence required for source of money for banks so all comments about no one asking questions should be properly addresssed to bankers here who will ask you all type of questions about source of money
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May 24, 2015 11:33pm
@Einstein Babar. I dont understand they granted more nationalities to Pak than Ind and hence you should be thankful to them? these are individual people getting settled there. Once settled there they are citizens of that country. so why does people like you and I need to thankful to them?
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May 24, 2015 11:35pm
@Sohail it does not say they are commerical property. I know lot of celebrity and politicians who invest in luxury property there for personal use.
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May 24, 2015 11:39pm
@Ahmed USA
very wrong
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May 24, 2015 11:56pm
@Einstein Babar , There are 2.2 million Indians in UAE comprising 30% of it's population as opposed to 1.2 million Pakistanis comprising 21% of it's population.
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May 25, 2015 12:52am
@Vikas
Money flowing out of Pakistan is never a good thing for Pakistan. Imagine the number of jobs an investment of $379 million can create inside Pakistan?
We want money flowing into Pakistan not out of Pakistan.
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May 25, 2015 01:08am
@Abdul Hai , agreed
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May 25, 2015 02:11am
Where is the United States and EU on this. Remember BCCI. Wait and see when this bubble bursts.
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May 25, 2015 02:20am
@Zulfiqar Bad. Money is being drained from Pak.
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May 25, 2015 02:25am
The long term prospects of most Arab nations is under threat. With Dubai it has nothing of real value to offer the world.
Mark my words it will come all crashing down and there will be a lot of people crying.
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May 25, 2015 02:28am
@Imran AB That is one nice information bit..thanks!:):)
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May 25, 2015 03:59am
The UAE minister said Pak will have to pay a heavy price for not joining Yemen war, he needs to know if Pakistan removes her money and man-power from UAE, UAE may have to pay a big price.
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May 25, 2015 04:41am
This is simply surprising. The amount is greater than the United States Aid of $250 million provided to Pakistan for the displaced people
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May 25, 2015 05:19am
@Einstein Babar
Indians can come back to their country live in peace. But its doubtful for Pakistanis want to return.
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May 25, 2015 05:24am
@Imran AB
As long as conflict in the Middle East will maintain the property not after that. Like Pakistanis there many other nationalities picking up property in UAE, because gross security problem within their country.
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May 25, 2015 06:45am
@Einstein Babar That is not correct, Salaries for daily labour in India is more than UAE hence very less immigration from India, that too some poor states.
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May 25, 2015 07:02am
Indian real estate market size is over $150 Billion per year and the investment of foreign investors in Indian real estate is over $2 Billion per year. Indian investors investing in Dubai is a minor amount and it is more to spread the risks.
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May 25, 2015 07:21am
@Einstein Babar ... Sorry, non-Arab nationality does not mean that they are UAE citizens. It only means, people with Pakistani citizenship..
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May 25, 2015 08:42am
This investment is most likely the one which is through proper channels. No one knows the volume of outward flow investment through black money and black market. A lot has to be done to ensure maximum investment is done in the country and outward flow to declines.
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May 25, 2015 09:42am
The pace seems to have slowed down considerably, in 2014 Pakistanis invested US$ 4.6 Billion in Dubai. Incidentally, Pakistanis also sent about US$ 4.6 Billion to India in 2014, according to the World Bank. I wonder if the pace has slowed or are they hiding the money better than before after the good general made his appearance on the political scene.
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May 25, 2015 09:45am
@maata;
"Bring peace to Pakistan and see how Pakistanis would love to invest here."
Our enemies understand that better than us and they would do whatever they can to prevent peace in Pakistan.
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May 25, 2015 10:40am
this is called economic terrorism
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May 25, 2015 12:53pm
You don't need to thank Dubai for letting your folks invest in properties there.
Dubai, on the other hand, should be thankful like hell to Pakistanis for investing in the local economy in Dubai. Without Indian subcontinent folks, Dubai would be a large sand dune.
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May 25, 2015 02:12pm
@maata True to the last word
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May 25, 2015 02:15pm
What is wrong with people? Why does everyone assume it is laundered money?
Enough with the negativity folks. Pakistan is a thriving nation and there are thousands of law-abiding people earning legally.
Whats wrong if they are investing somewhere they find returns better and safer
If you dnt have the means yourself, dnt defame others who do without proof
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May 25, 2015 03:53pm
Alarming situation, because Investors wants stability in the country. And we have series of crises.
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May 25, 2015 06:06pm
Are our countries actualy poor ?
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May 25, 2015 07:38pm
These days it’s a trend among Pakistani Americans to own properties in UAE and Turkey
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May 25, 2015 11:37pm
mostly ill gotten wealth.
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May 25, 2015 11:38pm
@Einstein Babar Indians would rather remain Indian nationals since India does not allow dual citizenship.
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