LDA sells pricy plots at ‘cheaper’ rates

[Salman]

LDA sells pricy plots at ‘cheaper’ rates

LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has auctioned many commercial plots in its residential schemes and towns at a price far below than the market rate in the last couple of months, Dawn has learnt.

Though the authority is legally empowered to sell its residential, commercial and public utility sites through auction, the committee assigned to carry out bidding is following the price value of the property assessed by the approved independent evaluators, ignoring the continuous price hike in residential schemes, mainly Johar Town. However, the LDA officials claim that the plots are being auctioned at reasonable rates.According to documents, the committee held auctions for selling residential, commercial and public utility plots in Johar Town, Mustafa Town, Sabzazar Scheme, Jubilee Town and Township.

On Feb 13, 2014, the auction committee sold commercial plots in Johar Town bearing No. 770-A (60-SQM in G-IV), 770-B (60-SQM in G-IV), 770-C (60-SQM in G-IV), 173 (80-SQM in J-II), 174 (80-SQM in J-II), 221 (75-SQM in J-III), 533-A (50-SQM in J-III), 533-B (50-SQM in J-III), 402-E (50-SQM in R-II), 372-A (70-SQM in R-II) and 372-B (70SQM in R-II) at per Marla rate of Rs1.895 million, Rs1.925m, Rs1.895m, Rs1.015m, Rs1.605m, Rs2.010m, Rs1.450m, Rs1.585m, Rs1.215m, Rs1.270m and Rs1.240m respectively.

Similarly, the committee sold plot No. 170-E (1-marla and 188-SQF) in Mustafa Town and plot nos 244-C (3-marla and 5-SQF) and 343-E (4-marla and 204-SQF) in Jubilee Town at per marla auctioned price of Rs1.310m, Rs0.565m and Rs0.575m, respectively. On March 13, the committee held another auction and sold four plots in Johar Town, two each in Mustafa Town and Jubilee Town and four in Sabzazar Scheme.

Although the committee auctioned the aforementioned plots at the price slightly higher than the evaluated price, the property/estate agents say that the plots could have been sold at much higher rates following the rising prices in the market, especially with reference to Johar Town due to various development works (construction of a five-star hotel and recreational facilities near Expo Centre) and settlement of migrants from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

“We know the market better than the government evaluators. Had I been a member of the committee, I would have sold almost half of the total auctioned plots on higher rates,” said Fahim, an estate agent. He termed G-IV, J-II and J-III very important blocks of Johar Town where price of commercial property was going up being located near Expo Centre.

“I think the plots auctioned in these blocks should have been sold at Rs2 to Rs2.3m per Marla rather than at Rs1.5 to Rs2m,” he claimed.

Faheem termed the auctioned price of some plots in R-II Block according to the current market value.

Another estate agent working in Sabzazar, Iqbal Town and Mustafa Town reviewed the auctioned prices and said that some plots, auctioned in last month, were sold at low rates.

Talking to Dawn, LDA Director (Finance) Zaheer Asghar Rana (one of the LDA auction committee members), termed the auctions free, fair and transparent.

“Besides getting plots’ market price assessed by the independent evaluators, the respective LDA officials also verified it personally by visiting the market. The plots are auctioned on the maximum bid offered by the participants/parties and all the plots have also been sold at the prices even higher than the evaluated ones,” he claimed.

Mr Rana rejected the assessment of the estate agents/dealers, terming the price, assessed by the evaluators, correct for being more professional.

Another LDA official, who requested not to be quoted, challenged property dealers to sell various LDA-owned plots at the price they assessed.

“They (the dealers) just always justify their prices on the basis of assumption as they don’t know the ground realities,” he said.

Delayed: The implementation of the decision to give possession of plots to allottees in LDA Avenue-1 residential scheme delayed after the senior officials concerned reached a consensus to first formulate a strategy for giving alternative plots to those who challenged about 70 allotments in courts, it was learnt.

The LDA’s governing body had in its meeting held last month allowed the authority to start giving possession to allottees of 70 per cent cleared area in the scheme from March 31.

The delay in signing minutes of the meeting of the LDA’s governing body by all members has also caused a delay in implementing the decision, according to a senior LDA official.

“In fact developers of two housing schemes -- Chiniot and Mumtaz -- had challenged allotments in civil and high courts, claiming that the land acquired by the LDA from landowners was earlier purchased by them for their schemes.

We rejected the stand of developers as they got fake land sale agreements prepared in back dates and that their schemes were illegal for not being approved by LDA or other authorities concerned,” the official said.

He said since proceedings of cases had been in courts since long, the LDA administration was of the view to have an arrangement with petitioners to give them alternate plots in case courts gave decisions in their favour in future.

“The delay in signing of governing body’s minutes of meetings is yet another cause of hindrance in possession of plots as we cannot do so legally without it,” he said.

The official said the Avenue-1 management had almost completed the development work, except some minor/finishing jobs.

About arrangements for alternative plots, he said there was a proposal to find the requisite space through reducing size of all plots. But the proposal was rejected by the LDA administration for being unviable.

The official hoped the LDA would be able to start giving possession to allottees by mid of next month after formulating the alternative plots’ strategy and signing of minutes of the meeting.