Millions of Pakistanis linked with the real estate sector are caught in an economic crisis as the industry faces a reckoning market. Outdated approaches and the perception that this industry is high-risk and unreliable causes many professional, interested individuals to become careful of investing their hard-earned income into their property, lands, or developments. However, with some significant fluctuations in industry practices and mindsets, this industry can become rewarding and profitable. Either you want to invest in this sector or consider real estate as a career prospect, or this is an excellent opportunity to create positive and real change in this sector. These can be achieved through a shift in approach on the part of real estate developers and agents.

Real estate is one of the most apparent tax haven and wealth concealment areas and is a massive issue for Pakistan’s GDP. This means an enormous proportion of earnings is not reported to the authority or made a legal part of the economy due to the magnitude of the real estate industry coupled with fewer or no regulatory insight. On a technical front, the supply and demand gap is an extra cause of concern for investing in the business. A report mentioned, urban housing presently amounts to around 350,000 units per year. Still, the supply only amounts to 150,000 units per year. This does not support the gap at all. Many governments have historically opted to create easy settlements-slums to combat this issue, but does it solve it? No, it only creates a short-term waiting period, and that too a disordered one.

Despite the significant issues within this sector due to unreliable developers and agents’ actions, this is still one of the most assuring areas for professional and economic growth. Firstly, Pakistan’s real estate market has grown into a significant financial growth source in the country. “The combined contribution of construction and housing sectors to the country’s GDP has been consistently higher than 9% of the past decade,” a report by the State Bank of Pakistan. The demand for apartments has increased necessarily in urban centers, fueling the surge in the number of recently constructed high-rise luxury apartments in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. All these numbers are good indicators of growth in a country. Also, real estate is the right career path for young fresh graduates to start their job experience. The current state of the market has become very dull and stale because there is no revolution in this sector. The strategies come across as outdated at this point, and young people can change that. For business graduates, the job market has become insanely saturated. Therefore, this area can also produce employment and has the potential to make the competition more interesting. Young people can have an excellent opportunity to learn from a reliable and experienced property and development advisors who can mentor their burgeoning interest in this sector.

For this to work, developers, and especially the veterans, will have to change their behavior towards the market and our country’s youth. This generation will enter this market if given a chance to revolutionize and modernize how the market has been running for the past decades. They will only work better and integrate better if they are guided by the existing established personalities in the market. Beyond verbal promises, the government still has a significant role to play with the actual processes needed to provide a boost to this sector. The government needs to pay considerable attention to this field, and the thousands of Pakistanis associated with this sector need to be provided support through proper policies and relief. Investors, especially foreign investors, need to be drawn in with attractive and trustworthy projects and plans to benefit both the international revenue and real estate industry.

Real estate also needs to address its gender inequality issue. For a country to be prosperous, its women need to be allowed to contribute to the economy, and the real-estate sector is proving to be a real asset to the economy in this regard. The taboos that this is only a male working space has slowly started to disappear as more and more women can be seen occupying spaces in this marketplace. Many women have begun taking up managerial positions in development and building agencies. Some of the country’s top projects are getting to the point they are because the women in the industry have brought a different kind of element to the marketing methods that were being used. More and more women occupying top management positions in these spaces can pave the way for more female graduates to enter this industry. This is now turning into one sector of the economy where women might just beat men if not equalize them in terms of numbers. Working women are starting to realize that this sector can turn the tide and become a safe and engaging space for our brilliant women to test their skillset; only the existing members of this industry create this space.

However, men in these industries must change their traditional mindset towards women. Men, especially older and more experienced developers, and industry giants are still under the impression that this sector is male-centric, and women are only here to fulfill smaller positions. The men can’t even fathom being instructed or advised by these women right now. Still, they will face a significant disadvantage if they do not embrace change and bring behavioral changes. The industry can encourage more female participation by holding real estate workshops and property law classes in women’s universities. Invite female graduates to join their teams and create a safe, comfortable environment in their offices. That way, young females are interested in being productive members of the real estate market. One great benefit of these efforts will be the increased participation of female investors in this field. As more and more women in Pakistan build sustained careers and shun the shackles of traditional expectations, they turn to investment opportunities in the real estate sector. It would be even more beneficial for organizations and agents to have female representatives who understand these women’s needs and cater to them.

Real estate might have been the most significant industry in terms of GDP for our country, but it will become one of the most rewarding and wanted career paths in the years to come. The last quarter of 2019 came as a small relief to the ailing economy as both the USD rate and stock market stabilized, which is an excellent sign for this New Year. If real estate sector participants make a sincere effort to change their mindsets and create more trust in the country, they can succeed in making this sector more accessible for the common man. My vision for 2020 is to transform this sector so that investors, young people, and foreigners play a more significant role for the benefit of the entire country.