Competition Commission of Pakistan has decided to hold open hearing sessions with real estate stake holders from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to discuss the issue of malpractices in real estate sector of Pakistan. All stake holders including real estate developers, marketers, investors, buyers as well as affectees of property scams are invited through a public advertisement to participate in the open hearing, and discuss the genuine issues of real estate sector.
Competition Commission of Pakistan is an independent quasi-regulatory and quasi-judicial body which ensures healthy competition between companies for the benefit of economy. It has legal mandate to prohibit abuse of a dominant position in the market, certain types of anti-competitive agreements, and deceptive market practices.
Real estate sector plays a vital role in economic progress of Pakistan. This sector attracts international investment, create jobs, and contributes a major share to gross national income of Pakistan. Therefore, it is important to address the issues of all stake holders and curb all malpractices which affect a healthy competition between companies.
Competition Commission of Pakistan has received numerous complaints that some housing societies are deceiving end users by misleading advertisements. Billions of rupees are spent on publicity of such projects on print and electronic media to attract buyers and investors, but shared information is either misleading or wrong altogether. That information includes false claims about planned facilities, concealing important information, such as development charges, society approval letters and misleading statements about location.
This is a very important issue taken up by Competition Commission, as there are many projects which sell in the market without having requisite approvals from authorities. General property buyers normally do not have access to authentic information, so they fall in the trap of such scams.
The open hearing schedule is as follows:
Time: 11:00 AM
Date: 11th April, 2018
Venue: CCP office, 9th Floor, ISE Tower, Blue Area, Islamabad
Time: 11:00 AM
Date: 17th April, 2018
Venue: Pearl Continental Hotel, Mall Road, Lahore
Time: 11:00 AM
Date: 19th April, 2018
Venue: Avari Towers, Fatima Jinnah Road, Karachi
We hope that this whole exercise across 3 major cities will bring about some positive outcomes and some important policy decision may be taken to help resolve the serious issues of real estate sector.
Following is a copy of advertisement published on 9th April 2018 in Daily Jang: