Low budget housing options in Lahore

Me and my friend spent last weekend visiting EDEN value homes and Punjab Government Employees housing society near Shahkaam showk on canal road. Below are my observations:

Eden Value Homes:

1) I am not satisfied with their construction quality. We visited one 3.5M house and almost every wall had seapage. Not sure whether it was problem with that house only or its common in Eden.
2) Prices have increased in last 3 months. 3.5M house is in range of 36-40 lacs now.
3) We met some residents and they gave us very good feedback about facilities. They did not complain about seapage or any construction quality.

Punjab Government Employees housing society

1) Construction quality seems better than Eden. Houses are constructed by NESPAK. No tip top but quality is good.

2) All houses are single story and price of 5M single story is around 33 to 38.

3) We met a resident (colleague of my friend) who has been living there for 2 years. He was very happy with construction quality. 

4) Construction is very simple, chips floor, tiles only in bathroom and basic conventional sanitary fittings. Even Kitchen is very simple. I think buyer will need to spend atleast 100k (lights + fans + exhaust fans + some taps) before moving there.

Comparison Table:

Feature	PGEHS	Eden Value Homes
Construction Quality	Good (7/10)	Satisfactory (5/10)
Distance from City	12 km from Thokar (4/10)	I think 2km from Thokar (8/10)
Quality of Living	Good (7/10)	Very Good (8/10)
Possible House option in budget	5M single story (7/10)	3.5M double story (5/10)
Cost of living (Monthly charges)	600 Rs	1500 Rs
Approach from City	Very good as its on canal road (7/10)	Good (6/10)……Busy Multan road
Basic Necessities of Life	Very few options (5/10) : School: Nearest one is either in BT or Izmir). Hospital: Nearest is in BT or Farooq hospital near thokar. Market:  They have a market. Public Transport: Available 24hrs on Multan road and till 11 PM on Canal	More options (7/10) : School: Many schools near thokar. Hospital: Nearest is Farooq hospital near thokar. Market:  They have a market. Public Transport: Available 24hrs on Multan road.
ROI (Return on Investment)	Price is expected to increase because of its location. Normal 5M plot price is around 20 lacs. So getting house in 33 or 34 seems good price.	I don’t think price of 3.5 will increase more than 40 lacs. It can increase maximum to 45 only if DHA city is constructed adjacent to Eden (still in air)

Constructing a new house

I bought an 8M plot in Bahria town Lahore last year and now planning to start construction on it. I spent last few months meeting with people who have recently constructed their houses, talking to various builders,architects and visiting newly constructed or under construction houses at Bahria. It was an awesome experience and I learned lots of ins and outs of construction process.


STEP 1 Drawing the map:
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The first and most important step is to draw map of your dream house. To me, it totally depends on your requirements, your aesthetic sense, location and size of your plot. I visited many houses in Bahria town Lahore and other places, met their owners, got their feedback, discussed map of their house with them.  Below are some maps that I got from various sources during this survey. Almost all of them are less than 10M as my plot size is 8M so I was not interested in anything greater than 8M.

Bahria Town Houses Maps:
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House Number 1:
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House Number 2

 

House Number 3
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House Number 4:

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Lake City Maps:
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You can get maps of LakeCity villas from http://www.lakecitylahore.com/villas.html. They have villas in following sizes:

• 10 Marla:  
• 12 Marla: 
• 14 Marla
• 1 Kanal

Safari Villas Maps:

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Although I personally don't like design of safari villas but you can also look at maps of different safari villas to get an idea about house design. Bahria offers different styles in villas including:

• Villa Moderna 1:  http://www.safarivillaslahore.com/safarivilla/safariweb/villamoderna1.php
• Villa Gardenia 1:  http://www.safarivillaslahore.com/safarivilla/safariweb/villagardenia.php 
• Villa Moderna 2:  http://www.safarivillaslahore.com/safarivilla/safariweb/villamoderna2.php 
• Villa Grande:  http://www.safarivillaslahore.com/safarivilla/safariweb/villagrande.php 
• Villa Mansion 1:  http://www.safarivillaslahore.com/safarivilla/safariweb/safarimention1.php 

 Izhar Villas:

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Izhar is a big group and their villas are very well designed and constructed. Izhar offers following Villas:

• Izhar Villas:  http://izharhousing.com/izhar.html
• Izhar Dream Villas:  http://izharhousing.com/izhar_housing.html

They have given complete maps with floor plans and pictures of interior. I personally like their villas.

Valencia Homes:

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Valencia homes are available in following sizes:

• 5 Marla
• 10 Marla
• 8 Marla
• 16 Marla

You can find details of these houses from http://www.valanciahomes.com/

I will keep on updating this post as I get more maps. May Allah (SWT) bless all of you and your families with nice, beautiful and comfortable houses. Aaameen.

Purchasing a new CNG cylinder

1) There are many brands of cylinders available in market. OGRA (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) of Pakistan has list of approved CNG cylinders at http://www.ogra.org.pk/images/data/downloads/1275560046.pdf. Among these cylinders, all Italian cylinders are considered better than others. But I could not find any new Italian cylinder in the market. Faber, which is regarded as best, comes with all company fitted CNG Suzuki cars. It is also light in weight than all other cylinders.

2) I read at http://tribune.com.pk/story/239492/ogra-bans-cng-cylinder-import-from-12-suppliers/ that OGRA has banned import of Faber and EKC cylinders. I sent a query at Pakwheels to know about ban on
EKC as almost all CNG workshops are selling it.
Here is link to my post http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/cng/176639-ekc-dubai-banned-ogra. I also tried calling OGRA representatives but could not find any information from them. I even called at their Islamabad office and sent an email to their chairman and his team but none of them bothered to reply.

3) Finally, I got below reply from OGRA regarding the email I sent to all their officials.

4) The capacity of CNG cylinder is measured in water liters. Cylinder installed my car was Delamine (Italian brand) with capacity of 28.5L. Its CNG capacity was 4.5kg CNG. I planned to change it with 50L cylinder that can contain 8kg CNG.

5) I tested my car's cylinder from HDIP Lahore and put an add to sell it on back of my car. I also placed an add on OLX which I think is a very good place to sell your stuff. But I did not have much time so I decided to sell it to some dealer.

6) I got list of CNG centers in Lahore from http://www.pakcng.com/CNGdealers.asp?City=Lahore. I called them one by one but all of them asked me to visit their shop. So I decided to visit Bhawalpur road (road of Miani grave yard).

7) I also visited this workshop as it was recommended by a pak wheeler http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/cng/173518-best-workshop-cng-lahore-johar-town. I got the best rate from Bahawalpur road dealers. My plan was to go to Noor CNG a.k.a Butt CNG but he refused to purchase second hand cylinder. So I went to Gasline, had some negotiations with him and finally purchased new 50L E.K.C in 9k with exchange of my current cylinder.

Purchasing a new Suzuki car

I purchased new Suzuki Mehran 2011 for my Aunt last month. Below are the things I learned during this experience.

1.    Get a list of Suzuki’s authorized dealers from PAK Suzuki’s website http://www.paksuzuki.com.pk/Automobile/Pages/DealersNew.aspx.
2.  If you are planning to purchase car with own, do not contact just one dealer. Contact all of them because own is a variable amount and it totally depends on your negotiations with dealer.
3. Price of car = Base price of car + freight charges + Own
4. Call any of these dealers, negotiate with him and ask him to confirm car for you. After this you can visit him any time and pay token money after looking at the car. They don’t allow to take test drive of car ( I don’t know why). According to them test drive is allowed only for newly launched brands.
5. Regarding payment, you need to make pay order of base price against name of Pak Suzuki pvt. Ltd.
6. While taking the vehicle, do check everything including following:

a.       Front lights (low, high and dippers)

b.      Indicators (right, left and hazard light)

c.       Horn

d.       Wipers (water thrower)

e.      AC

f.        Petrol to CNG conversion

g.       Tools

h.      All doors are closing properly and locks are also working

i.     Keep the engine running for some time and check the temperature needle.

How to purchase second hand car

Increase in prices of first hand cars has increased demand of second hand cars. First hand cars have really got out of budget range of many ppl. Even low quality cars like Mehran are above 500k......ahhhh (where on earth should I go)....
But purchasing a second hand car is never easy especially in Pakistan where you can not trust anyone. Below is a list of things that I learned from my experience:

Not recommended things:

• Do not purchase car from dealers unless dealer is some very good friend or relative of yours. I am not saying all dealers are fraud......but its not recommended.
• Do not purchase car with duplicate registration book. It could be a security risk plus its very hard to sell such cars. Even if you purchase one, you'll not be able to resale it whenever you want.
• Do not purchase cars registered outside your province. If you live in Lahore then better purchase car Lahore number car. Cars registered in other provinces will be stopped at every check post and are very hard to sell.

CheckList:

Check all these things before purchasing car:

• Condition of Car's body: Check its side panels and floor by removing floor mats. Its better to take car to some mechanic or any other place where it can be elevated so that you can check it from downside. 
• Conditon of car's engine: This is a bit tricky. But few important things to check are:
• No black smoke from exhaust: Start car and accelerate it a bit then check the color of smoke from its exhaust pump. Put some white color tissue paper on its exhaust pump to see whether some carbon elements are there or not. You can also rub the tissue against inside walls of exhaust and see the black particles on inside walls of exhaust.
• Check the engine oil level. If car is consuming more engine oil, it means engine is wearing down. 
• Drive the car and check its pick in different gears.
• Major accidented or not: Best is to show it to some denter. I normally check doors by opening and closing them few times. If they are settling smoothly, it means okay. But I wouldn't recommend paying to some unknown denter/mechanic to go with you to visit some car. In this case they will not give you right opinion as they are only concerned with money. They'll recommend you very first car you'll visit with them, take money from you and go away.......
• Verify car's data: Easiest way is to go to mtmis website i.e. http://mtmis.punjab.gov.pk/, give car's registration number and get its details. Otherwise go to excise and taxation office.
• Book is original or not
• City of registration, you'll see a significant difference in karachi and Lahore/ISB registered cars.
• Tokens are complete or not
• Owner number (first/second/third ... hand)
• Car Mileage: Its always better to purchase less driven car.
• Original paint or not

Cheers,

Dealing with the DEALER

.....Coming soon..... Learned many things while making first deal of my life........will share it in few days.

How to get a house on rent

I have learned all this with my experience of shifting and some bad experiences of dealing with owners :(.....

1) If you have a small family and you do not expect many guests, do not go for big house then. 5 to 7M single story house with two bed + drawing is enough.

2) Better get a house where owners live in other portion. In this case you can tell them about problems any time and they will take care of things as they themselves will be living there

3) If its a portion then meet second family and get their feedback. Also meet neighbors and ask them about any security or other problems in that area. 

4) If its a portion then better go for one where other portion family is not big too or does not have many children. Otherwise you'll keep on getting noise.

5) Most important thing is write every contract on paper never ever leave any verbal commitment.

6) Electricity meter should be separate.

7) It will be good if motor pump and water tank is separate too otherwise.......you will often be shouting on the other family to switch on the Motor.

8) Check all water taps, electricity buttons, kitchen cupboards, bathroom flush tank. If anything is not working.......tell them.....otherwise you'll have to do this your self.

9) Entrance of your portion should be separate otherwise it will disturb your privacy a lot as you often have to go out late or come home late.

10) If you are planning to install UPS.......tell them in advance.

11) Females are more concerned about kitchen so check kitchen carefully.

12) Gas Geaser should be installed and working. Check it by igniting it. 

13) Ask owner one thing clearly......if something common gets out of order.......who will be responsible for its maintenance and how much you'll have to pay in percentage?

Enjoy......