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AWT and ECHS Islamabad Development and Prices Overview December 2016

sector d-18 islamabad awt echs

Army Welfare Trust Housing SchemeEngineers Cooperative Housing Scheme located in specified area of proposed sector D-18 Islamabad have had slowest activity period since 2013 as there had been almost no activity from investors of Islamabad after the construction work on Sangjani Interchange project on M-1 came to a halt. 2016 seems to have broken the ice as some sale purchase activity has started which has improved prices especially in AWT Housing Scheme.

AWT Islamabad was already a developed housing scheme but nobody bothered to construct their house due to a number of issues including unavailblity of water and no direct access. The interchange project is considred to change the fate of AWT as major issue will be resolved after opening of direct access through motorway.

AWT-D-18-Islamabad

Earlier, prices had been going down in all sectors including D block, which is considered to be the best block of AWT. You could buy 1 kanal for as low as 25 lacs up to max 40 lacs in AWT, and 10 marla plots from 13 lacs up to 25 lacs. After the recent thrust of investment in 3rd and 4th quarter of 2016, prices seem to have improved by 10 to 25% in all blocks including G.

At present, you can find 10 marla in AWT from 15 to 30+ lacs, 1 kanal from 27 to 50+ lacs and 2 kanal from 45 to 70+ lacs. Best blocks for investment are A, D, B, F and H.

The interchange is almost complete at present, and it is expected to be opened for traffic within few weeks. As the major development of new Islamabad International Airport opening is at close quarters, bulk of investment is already coming into various housing schemes including AWT and ECHS.

ECHS Islamabad has some houses constructed and few more under construction especially in J, K & H blocks due to being located close to D-17 Margalla View Housing Scheme, so it was second choice for those who could not afford a plot in D-17 due to high property prices. ECHS has also shown some improvement in prices, however it doesn’t direct benefit from the interchange till a proper service road connects it to the motorway. ECHS was supposed to perform better than AWT since it has provision of water, underground electricity and gas, and also it is adjacent to a populated sector D-17. Moreover, ECHS offers 600 SQY residential plots, whereas AWT offers 500 SQY plots.

ECHS D18 Islamabad

Since ECHS offers just 600 SQY residential plots in all of its blocks except M block; where 300 SQY plots are also available, one has to have enough money in order to construct their house on 1 kanal plot. If ECHS had smaller plot sizes, there were high chances of better growth in prices and more constructions could be seen. Another issue with ECHS is the odd size of commercial plots in main commercial area, which is 20.6 x 44, so unless somebody constructs on a pair of commercial plots, this odd size doesn’t allow for a good plaza. North commercial area, where bigger commercial plots are located, is still lying non-developed,therefore we don’t see any significant improvement in commercial plot prices of ECHS.

Normally 10 marla plots in M block of ECHS cost from 18 to 25 lacs, and 1 kanal plots in all other blocks cost from 28 to 60 lacs. Best blocks to buy include J,K,H,D and G blocks.

Both housing schemes have much higher potential to rise as motorway access will shorten the travel time to Islamabad, and the mega development of new Islamabad Airport is expected to change the fate of this southern side of Islamabad which has suffered a lot due to lack of interest from developers as well as from investors.

There are basically some issues with the strategy of both housing schemes. Even after being quite developed for a long time, they didn’t initiate any residential or commercial projects in order to incentivize investments as well as to encourage people to start living here. No efforts to establish some schools, parks, hospitals etc were seen from the society, which caused people to disregard D-18 as a place where they could start living. It is important for those who run the affairs of both societies to understand the importance of amenities which should be offered first in order to develop a living environment.

Since both housing schemes are from a stable and legitimate background, we expect the developments will be much faster after the volume of investments goes higher. As majority of surrounding housing schemes have already much higher prices as compared with AWT and ECHS, this is quite likely that D-18 prices will continue to rise steadily in 2017 and afterwards.

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