Woke up late on a lazy Saturday morning… went for breakfast and made some new friends. Did some chit chat with this gentleman who was at the Mirage hotel for some food conference…
Then, it was time to meet the computer guys. They were 15 minutes late… so we just told them our requirements for:
- 5 computers
- IP Telephony
- External Hard Disk Storage (IP-based)
- Reliable Broadband
- Not Original Softwares
- Norton Ghost for fast set-up of computers
Finally got our masks! Yes.. the pollution in Lahore is quite upsetting at time. The main reason I believe is the tu-tu cars. Check out their exhaust! No wonder Singapore has COEs…
With intentions to invest in the real estate market of Pakistan, we decided to arm ourselves with a map. Went over to a bookstore… and tried to find one… However, it seemed that none was as handy as the lonely planet maps that we had in our guide book.
Real Estate Agent that made me wait and wait. Yes… this man was supposed to be at my hotel after his meeting in the morning. We waited for quite a long while until we got really tired and went out to have our lunch. Next thing I know, he directed our tu-tu driver until we got really lost. Just jumped out of the car at the Subway Sandwich station to have a bite and got him to go there.
At Subway Sandwich station, Denise discovered a worm in her sandwich!!! She told the manager about it and they offered to replace the sandwich. However, as my GF was not really that hungry, she just asked the staff to share it amongst themselves….
Before we knew it, this guy below asked for the Sandwich from the Subway people… Hmmm……
Anyway, after that, he brought us around to see the prime Defense Housing Authority (DHA) housing of Lahore. Must really say that it is a high class and posh place. It feels like our Singapore’s high end residential places, i.e. sixth avenue, bukit timah areas…
Below are some pictures… I believe all their floorings are using homogeneous tiles! Not bad coming from Lahore.
The toilet fixtures might not be first class, but definitely one of the better ones we have seen. Even better than the one at our hotel.
My GF posing at an empty DHA office
DHA Masterplan
My GF scaling the last flight of stairs to the top
View from the Rooftop of DHA
Another very friendly chap who is an expert in DHA house prices. Apparently, the price came down 50% from 2 years ago. I believe he must be talking about the DHA area, as it did not really affect the Al-Hafeez Shopping Mail.
Now this guys is really cool. His name is Rizwan and he used to play in a band before the mundane need for bread and butter caused him to join the real estate profession. He is very patient and went through with us many properties at Al-Hafeez Shopping Mall.
Booking prices for Al-Hafeez started 4 years ago at 5000 Rupees per square feet. It was completed 3-4 months ago and owners now are asking for 6000 – 6500 Rupees per square feet. Sounds pretty reasonable.
Rental Prices are:
554 square feet – 420 (with 3 windows)
4th floor – 22,000 Rupees
5th floor – 20,000 Rupees
8th floor – 15,000 Rupees
514 square feet – 409
4th floor – 20,000 Rupees
5th floor – 14,000 – 15,000 Rupees
1100 square feet – 418
4th floor – 40,000 Rupees
8th floor – 27,000 Rupees
750 square feet
3rd floor – 30,000
737 square feet
4th floor – 25,000