Property Transactions in Pakistan are a complicated business due to variety of reasons. The prospective Overseas buyers of the property most of the time do not posses full information in respect of the market value and physical condition of the Property that they intend to buy. Being far away from home, Overseas buyers usually lack local Market information and Value in respect of the Property that they intend to invest in and usually face the following questions:

- What sort of diligence and inquiries should they be expected to carry out if they have to purchase property in Pakistan?
- The Builder can provide the land documents and NOCs but how is it going to be determined if that documentation is a forgery?

Since it is extremely difficult for Pakistanis based in overseas to physically visit the country by spending considerable amount of money and take leave from work, they often have to rely on information provided to them either by property dealers / agents or relatives back home.

Unfortunately, most Property Agents operate from makeshift locations with either a signboard or painting on top of the shutter of their Shop (Office). The entire business is usually a one-man show with minimum operating costs with NO registration and approval of any authority whatsoever. Some of them even do not have any bank accounts and works only on cash. All their dealings are based on words of mouth and there is no concept of service agreement with the Agent.

One cannot but only imagine what would one go through and how would one proceed when your entire hard earned money is on stake and something goes wrong in-between the transaction and the need arises to complain against an Agent. This too in circumstances when no one but only the parties involved in the transaction know the terms and conditions of the agreement and, ironically, that too in verbal form.

Being aware of the situation and their inability to personally come before transfer formalities, Property Agents try to sell them properties either on extremely high prices or properties that are less in demand. Thus, prospective buyers are mostly end up buying property on a price that is not based on ‘Fair Market Value’ and / or a property that does not suit to their particular needs in many ways.

In either of the scenario, the only party that suffers the most is the Buyer who never sees the property before he / she arrives for transfer formalities. Had the Buyer conducted independent Surveying and Valuation of the property before purchasing decision, such situation would not have arisen.

We, therefore, always recommend having the Independent Property Valuator involved so that you could have someone on your side to look after your interest and provide you with an unbiased opinion.