ISLAMABAD, April 20: About 15 to 20 per cent of the successful bidders, who bought residential and commercial plots in the recently-concluded auction, are likely to default in payment of the amount required to be deposited within 72 hours of the bidding.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will, therefore, forfeit the token money and the minimum deposit these bidders had made at the time of the bidding.

The successful bidders are required to make 25 per cent of the total payment to the CDA within 72 hours of the bidding.

A senior official of the authority, who was part of the recently-held auction, told Dawn that the bidding witnessed an ‘unnaturally high trend’ during the three days of the activity in which 65 residential and 28 commercial plots were auctioned.

“We were expecting a revenue generation to the tune of around Rs1 to 1.5 billion through the sale of these plots in the open auction. But, at the end of the third day, we crossed Rs2 billion mark and the auction of a few remaining commercial plots was postponed,” he said.

The official said there was an upward trend in estate and property market all over the country and a similar response had been expected here.

“But, in the end it turned out that property in Islamabad showed a surge which appears unnatural.

The possibility could not be ruled out that property dealers have created this trend to appreciate their stocks in the market,” he said.

When Dawn contacted some of the people who attended the auction, they expressed their disappointment over what they encountered.

“They (property dealers) had formed a ‘mafia’. They never gave a chance to the general public to benefit from the open auction as they raised the bids too high. The individuals were not in a position to compete with them. Most of these plots have been bought by these property dealers,” they said.

The CDA official said: “The property dealers stretched the bids too high. I believe many of them will prefer to lose the token money and the minimum deposit they made to take part in the bidding.”

The bidders were required to buy a token worth Rs100,000 to be eligible to take part in the bidding and also deposit a minimum of Rs300,000 for a small residential plot and Rs500,000 for a big one at the start of the bidding.

“The default in payment by these people will reduce the revenue generation, but at least the authority will have the satisfaction of confiscating the token money and the minimum deposit made by those who will default,” the official said.

Another CDA official said the authority was likely to receive about Rs450 million in the first phase when the successful bidders would make deposits. The rest of the amount will be received in instalments by the authority in the next nine months.