A three-marla plot in a serviced location on Ferozepur Road is beyond most salaried families in Lahore, and has been for years. Not because they cannot afford a home — because they cannot afford land. Land is the part of a house whose price has run away fastest, and it is the part you are buying the least of when what you actually want is somewhere to live.
A townhouse on that plot has three floors. Sold as one house it is one price. Sold as three homes it is three prices, and each one is roughly a third of the whole.
| Ground Floor | Rs. 57,50,000 |
|---|---|
| First Floor | Rs. 55,00,000 |
| Second Floor | Rs. 52,50,000 |
| The same building, undivided | Rs. 1,65,00,000 |
The difference between Rs. 52,50,000 and Rs. 1,65,00,000 is not a discount. It is the whole idea.
What you are actually buying
One floor of one townhouse, in your name, with its own front door, its own utility meters and its own set of documents. You are not buying a share in a building, and you are not buying a flat in a block of eighty. You have two neighbours, and between you there is a staircase.
What it is not
- It is not a plot. You do not own a piece of land you could sell separately or build on differently. That trade is the whole reason the price is what it is, and it deserves a page of its own — see floor versus plot.
- It is not an apartment. There is no lift, no society charge, no management company, and no eighty-page bye-laws. There are also none of the things a large development provides. See why this isn’t a flat.
- It is not an investment pitch. A floor appreciates differently from land, and we would rather say so here than have you work it out later.
The part that makes people nervous
Buying one floor of a building is unusual in Punjab, and the version of it people have read about — portions and extra floors being sealed and demolished in Karachi — is the illegal version. It is a fair thing to worry about, and the answer is not “trust us”. It is a set of documents you can read before you pay anything.
That is what the registry is for: the approval and the authority that issued it, the exact instrument your ownership rests on, who owns the stairs and the roof, and how a resale works. Start with is this even legal, which is the question most people actually want answered first.
What it costs
Between Rs. 52,50,000 and Rs. 57,50,000 depending on the floor, with 15% down and 36 monthly instalments. Every figure is on the price sheet, generated from the same system that issues the contract, and there is a calculator if you would rather work it out yourself.