ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The international crisis that followed the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington has badly affected the property business in the federal capital where prices and rental value of houses have plummeted, a survey revealed.

Kashif, a property dealer in Blue Area, the city’s main business centre, said the entire market had been affected by fears and uncertainty. No one is ready to invest, and the whole property business has come to a standstill, he added.

He believed that it was the worst ever crisis to have hit the property business in the federal capital, since its establishment in 1960s.

Imran, another property dealer, said several houses and commercial units were lying vacant and no one was ready to hire or buy them.

The rental value in Islamabad, he added, had dropped upto 15 per cent as the houses earlier being rented out for Rs40,000 were now even available for around Rs35,000.

Arshad, who runs property business in F-10, said the worst had yet not come as many owners were not letting out their houses on lesser rents. However, he feared, there could be a major cut in the rents if the crisis lingered on for another month or so. He added that the sale prices had also dropped from 20 to 25 per cent.

The secretary-general, Traders’ Welfare Association Jinnah Super Market, Ijaz Abbasi, said the property owners had adopted a wait-and-see policy and were still hopeful that the crisis would end soon. He said, although a large number of foreigners had left the country, they had not yet vacated the houses.

Adeel Akhtar, a property dealer, said the worst-hit areas had been F6, F7, F8 and E7, where houses were of more than 1000 square yard. He said the most effected people in the current crisis were those receiving the rent in dollars.

Ayub, a real estate agent in G-9, said people were cutting down spending on rentals. Those residing in big houses are moving to cheaper houses because of the overall slump in the business. “Since people’s earnings have gone down, they are reducing their expenditures”, he said.

Irfan, another dealer in the same area, said rental values in Peshawar More and other areas of high Afghan population had slightly increased due to an the influx of new refugees. These people hire a house jointly, and are willing to pay more, he added.

Similarly, Bhatti, who runs property business in G-6, said smaller houses were, more or less, maintaining their rental value. Such houses, he said, were generally hired by the working class. Besides, the commercial units are also not getting new occupants as people planning to start businesses have postponed to do so, he said. —Zahra Syed