Pakistanis are not far behind Indians and Britons in purchasing property in the UAE as during the first half of 2016 they invested 3 billion dirhams (USD 816 million) in the real estate sector, a report said today.
According to the report in the Daily Dawn, Pakistanis bought property worth 3 billion UAE dirhams which comes to about Rs 85 billion (Pakistani rupees).
This puts them just behind Indians and Britons who invested 7 billion and 4 billion dirhams in real estate in UAE respectively.
The report compiled with the aid of Dubai Land Department said that in the last two-and-a-half years, Pakistanis have invested over 18 billion dirhams (USD 4.9 billion) in Dubai real estate market.
In 2015, Indian nationals ranked the highest value among foreigners, making property transactions worth 20 billion dirhams from 8,756 investors.
Britons came in at second with a total of 10 billion dirhams worth of property transactions from 4,889 investors while Pakistanis ranked third with 8 billion dirhams from 6,106 investors.
Abdul Wahab Parekh, the owner of Parekh Estate in Clifton said that Pakistani politicians, bureaucrats and some genuine buyers have lifted properties in Dubai instead of local businessmen.
He said that businessmen have pulled out their money from banks in Pakistan after introduction of 0.3 to 0.6 per cent withholding tax on filers and non-filers on tax returns.
"They have basically parked their money abroad," he said.
Parekh believes that after new valuation rates for property, the local businessmen were unlikely to take the plunge and started buying property in Dubai as the prices on that market have been in decline for more than a year.
He also claimed that about 80 per cent of black money found its way into the real estate sector in Pakistan.
