KARACHI: Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to build 100,000 housing units in Pakistan to help realize Prime Minister Imran Khan’s dream of an ‘ambitious’ housing project, officials said on Friday.
“Naguib Sawiris has expressed his will to invest in 100,000 units of affordable housing to help prime minister (Imran Khan) in his vision toward Pakistan,” Tarek Hamdy, Chief Executive officer of Elite Estates — a partnership between Ora Developer and Saif Holding — told Arab News in an exclusive interview.
Owned by Sawiris, Ora Developers is already engaged in the construction of a multibillion-dollar housing scheme named ‘Eighteen’ which was launched in 2017 in Islamabad with local partners, Saif Group and Kohistan Builders.
Sawiris’ first investment in Pakistan was in Mobilink, a cellular operator.
PM Khan in October 2018 had launched ‘Naya’ (New) Pakistan Housing Project in line with his party’s election manifesto, which promised fivr million houses for the poor.
Hamdy says they have “set rules or guidelines of the way of doing things” that apply to every real estate projects — whether they are affordable or high value units.
“We will use our experience and knowhow to deliver this properly to the people of Pakistan,” he added.
Since the announcement of the low-cost housing project for the poor, the scheme has been at the heart of all political and economic discourses with several calling it too ambitious.
“This scheme is very ambitious yet very promising for the people of Pakistan. I think all the developers should help in this scheme. You cannot solely rely on the government to build five million houses,” Hamdy said.
Recently, the governor of Pakistan’s central bank had said that the massive housing project would require financing of upto Rs 17 trillion.
Hamdy believes that the promise of building five million affordable housing units cannot be realized in a short span of time. “I think the plan is right but it has to be in stages, has to be in steps. It could be achievable obviously that is not the project (to be achieved) in one or two years... may take few good years, may be couple of decades to be achieved,” he said.
In the Islamabad project the Ora Developers own a 60 percent stake in the project comprising a five-star hotel, 1,068 housing units, 921 residential apartments, business parks, hospitals, schools and other educational facilities and 13 office buildings, and a golf course. The networth of the project is $2 billion.
The next cities on the radar for real estate projects are Lahore, Karachi, and Faisalabad. “We intend to do more, we intend to invest more. I think that our portfolio of real estate could come to $10 billion worth of investments in the next five to 10 years including all the projects that we intent to do,” Hamdy said.
Pakistan’s housing sector is marred by frauds, scams and unfinished schemes which has been discouraging many potential investors from venturing into the sector. However, Hamdy says he is confident of delivering the promise by 2021.
Analysts say that Pakistan’s housing sector offers great opportunities for investment due to increasing demand. “According to estimates, the current real estate market value is around Rs900 billion which is three times that of the GDP,” Saad Hashmey, an analyst at Topline Securities, told Arab News, adding that the PM’s housing project is the need of the hour.
Pakistan faces a shortage of nearly 12 million housing units that may require a massive investment of around $180 billion, according to the former Chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers, Arif Yousuf Jeewa.
Pakistan expects to attract more than $40 billion foreign direct investment in the next five years in oil refining, petrochemical, mining, renewable energy, and real estate sectors. “We estimate that roughly around $40 billion investment will be made by three countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and China) during the next three to five years,” Pakistan Board of Investment BoI chief, Haroon Sharif had told Arab News earlier, adding that “the investment would start materializing within the next two years”.
Egyptian billionaire offers to build 100,000 housing units in Pakistan
Egyptian billionaire offers to build 100,000 housing units in Pakistan
- Plan to construct 5mn housing units requires Rs17tr, State Bank says
- Group is already investing in a housing project in Islamabad
Pakistan invites Austrian firms to partner in citrus value-addition, mining, renewable energy
- PM Shehbaz Sharif attends joint business forum in Vienna, invites Austrian companies to the EU-Pakistan business summit in Islamabad in April
- The premier addresses the issue of illegal immigration, saying his government working to offer Europe workers with international certifications
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday invited Austrian companies to partner with Pakistani firms in citrus value-addition, mining and renewable energy sectors, saying their world-class expertise could help accelerate Pakistan’s growth.
Sharif said this while speaking at the Pakistan-Austria Business Forum during his two-day official visit to the European country, the first by any Pakistani premier in more than 30 years, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
The visit is focused on trade, investment and economic cooperation, and would involve productive interactions with the International Atomic Energy Agency, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and the UN Industrial Development Organization.
Speaking at the business forum in Vienna, Sharif said Pakistan is an agrarian economy and nearly 60 percent of its population resides in rural areas, with its hardworking farmers adding to the country's huge potential in agriculture.
"Austria can be a great partner providing Pakistan with experience, with modern technology to have value addition in the field of citrus fruit and make marmalade, juices and export them to Austria, to Middle East, other parts of the world," he said.
"Secondly, in mines and minerals, again Austria can become a great partner. Pakistan has vast resources of minerals and of course very rare minerals in the province of KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir."
Sharif's visit comes at a time when Pakistan is treading a long path to economic recovery under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout and seeks to boost trade and foreign investment to consolidate economic gains Islamabad has made in recent years.
Besides agriculture, PM Sharif invited Austrian companies to participate in renewable energy and grid modernization projects in Pakistan.
"Austria with its world-class expertise in engineering, renewable energy, environmental technology, advanced manufacturing [is well positioned] to benefit Pakistan’s growth trajectory," he said.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, SKILLED LABOR
Sharif also addressed the issue of illegal immigration of citizens from Pakistan, among other countries, to Europe and said his government was working end the practice and instead offer trained, skilled human resource to European nations, with international certifications.
Thousands of citizens from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other countries embark on perilous journeys each year attempting to enter Europe illegally in search of a better life.
In Dec., Pakistan's interior ministry said it had achieved a 47 percent drop in illegal immigration to Europe in 2025, with more than 1,700 human smugglers arrested as part of an expanded nationwide crackdown.
"I am absolutely against illegal immigration and we are working with our European friends, countries like Austria, Germany, France and other countries, to jointly bring this illegal immigration to a grinding halt," Sharif said.
"In return, your demand for trained labor, skilled labor, we are going to fulfill that demand with international certification to your requirement and your satisfaction."
The Pakistan premier said he looked forward to the participation of Austrian companies in the European Union-Pakistan Business Forum at the end of April in Islamabad.
