Zameen.pk.

com
Introduction:
Kaymu.pk has transformed the retail buying trends of Pakistan with the launch of their ecommerce website primarily serving the B2C market. They are the first to offer every kind of
product online at cheap rates whether it is a book, an album, shoes, clothes, television, mobile
phone, laptop, home decoration in short everything a person needs or wants in just a click away.
Kaymu is the #1 online shopping community in Pakistan exceeding daraz.pk in just 3
years. Their catalogue is categorized according to the type or the department they fall in. The
categories include clothing, footwear, mobiles, computers, electronics, books and media etc. to
name a few. They also serve the retailers and wholesalers by their online wholesale service. They
are offering the services of wholesaling which facilitates the B2B market as well.

History
Kaymu.pk was launched in December 2012 by Africa Internet Group, the e-commerce pioneer in
Africa and it is backed by Millicom, MTN, RI and Ooredoo. The company has spread to over 32
countries across Africa, Asia and Europe today with new countries being launched every month.
Their founders believe that the internet can break economic barriers and change the way business
is done. Therefore, they want to bring e-commerce, to empower local entrepreneurs by helping
them take their business online and to make shopping easy and accessible to everyone. Rocket
Internet is the parent company of Kaymu.
The company is headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan and has offices in Karachi and Lahore and
operates all over Pakistan. In May 2014, Zameen.com struck an investment deal with Frontier
Digital Ventures and Catcha Group after which Shaun Di Gregorio and Patrick Grove, CEO of
Frontier DV and Catcha Group respectively, joined Zameen.com's Board of Directors.
Zameen.com was founded in 2006 by two Pakistani entrepreneur brothers, Zeeshan and Imran
Ali Khan. In 2012, Gilles Blanchard, co-founder SeLoger.com (a French property portal), took
up the role of Chairman at Zameen.com.The company gave its website a complete makeover in
March 2014. It's the fourth time the site has been completely revamped. Initially Zameen.com
was a free for all website but in 2010, it shifted to paid model. Today the company generates its
income by selling advertising space on its website. Zameen.com also has a property magazine.
After the recent price hikes seen in real estate market, many investors are worried about another
property bubble. The famous property bubble bust of late 2000s is a recent memory, which has
many success and doom stories. Many people find the present boom rather unstable and relate it
with the property boom and crash of mid 2000s. It is therefore important to look at the reasons
why Pakistan real estate market went markedly up in early 2000s and later crashed.
Property boom in 2003-2005: Property boom of 2003-2005 occurred due to high property
demand. To understand the real estate market and the ups and downs it regularly faces, we

should know the fundamental connection between demand and supply. In real estate market, just
like all other sectors, lwhen demand is high and supply is low, prices generally go up and when
demand is low and supply is high, prices fall. In other words, when number of property buyers
exceeds the number of sellers, property rates increases and vice versa. There are some of the
reasons that helped create huge demand of property in Pakistan during and after 2003.
9/11 event:One reason of property boom of 2003-2005 was the unfortunate incidence of 9/11.
Pakistanis living in the USA had to face discrimination after 9/11 and they were forced to move
back to Pakistan with their wealth. These Pakistanis bought houses in posh areas of Lahore,
Karachi and Islamabad and invested in property sector creating a sudden rise in demand and
consequently the boom of 2003-2005.
Record low bank interest rate:Another factor behind the property boom of 2003-2005 was the
record low bank interest rate. In the past, average interest rate offered by State bank of Pakistan
was 12%. In 2003, the interest rate was lowered to 7.5%. Due to sudden decrease in interest rate,
people who had deposited their money in banks saw their profit shrinking; they withdrew money
and invested the amount in booming property market. This also increased demand for property
and pushed the rates up.
Booming economy & direct foreign investment:
In 2003, Pakistan formed a collation with USA in War Against Terrorism. Due to this collation,
Pakistan received support funds that stabilized the economy and strengthened the rupee. Pakistan
also got a lot of direct foreign investment. Large portion of this money eventually went to the
housing sector which further supported the property boom.
Property crash of 2007: Pakistan property market crashed shorty after its boom. According to
the experts, following were some of the reasons why real estate market of the country went
down:
Recovery of the US economy : The US Government controlled communal violence within its
states and started strengthening its economy. By 2005, economy of the US had improved and
dollar had gained some strength. Seeing the US economy revive and racial violence going down,
US based Pakistanis decided to sell their property and head back to the States. As there were
more sellers in the market than buyers, the market crashed.
Sudden rise in interest rate: Interest rates offered by banks were increased from 7.26% in 2004
to 11.77% in 2007. To get high profits from fixed accounts, people chose to deposit money in
bank accounts by selling their properties. The result of all of this was the crashed property
market.
New housing societies: Due to high returns in property sector, many investors started
developing their own housing societies. Same trend was observed among the small investors who

joined the league to get hefty returns. With increased supply, we mostly see the property markets
crash and this is exactly what happened in 2007 onwards.
SUCCESS:
Zameen.com is the leading online real estate database that connects real estate dealers,
developers, estate agencies with general buyers, sellers and renters in Pakistan. The site lists
properties for sale and rent and has an active blog, news section and a forum. / Zameen.com is an
online property classifieds website that has single-handedly revolutionized the real estate sector
in Pakistan . The company is headquartered in Lahore, Pakistan and has offices
in Karachi and Lahore and operates all over Pakistan.
Zameen.com, is Pakistans largest property portal. The annual event, drew more than 45,000
people and saw developers, agents, buyers, sellers and prospective investors converge at the
Expo Centre in Lahore for a productive weekend of information exchange, beneficial deals, and
family fun.
We are so proud to have put up a property event of this magnitude.
After the raging success of Zameen.com Property Expo 2014, we were confident that this
year, too, would be great. However, this incredible turnout has surpassed even our
expectations.
As Pakistans most trusted and loved property portal, we promise to keep hosting realty
events of this calibre in the future., CEO Zameen.com.

Some issues / challenges affecting Pakistan real estate sector

Pakistan real estate sector is a robust industry in itself that maintains a consistent demand
throughout the year. Despite the problems faced by the country in general and real estate sector
in particular, Pakistan property market has been performing rather well as it continues to attract
the attention of overseas Pakistanis. There is no denying the fact that this sector could perform
tons better if some of the issues affecting Pakistan real estate sector are dealt with.
Political instability
Political instability in Pakistan is deemed to be the root cause of all major problems. Now
although the PPP government formed after the 2008 election has nearly completed its tenure,
never once during its reign was it able to break free of the uncertainties. Pakistan is a politically
volatile country where democracy never really got the chance to be deeply rooted. As a country
that has the ill-luck of never really choosing its own rulers, political stability remains a distant
dream.For many sectors of the state, major issues stem from this very part. Of all the sectors that

have suffered because of political uncertainty, Pakistan real estate market is perhaps one of the
biggest affectes. The lurking threat of martial law has driven off the prospect of foreign
investment which is severally affecting the growth of Pakistans property market.
Corruption
Like every other sector in Pakistan, property dealing too is regarded as not a very clean
department. Some real estate agents, with their misconduct, have given bad reputation to the
entire market where buyers and sellers are uncertain about the credibility of information that
reach them through such realtors. The increasing mistrust of people however, has worked well
both for themselves and the real estate sectors as the modern realtors have begun to understand
the need of telling the truth and staying honest in their dealings. While the situation is getting
better, there is still room for a lot more improvement.
Taxation
The new FBR property tax law in Pakistan has affected the property business rather badly.
Although the majority of the general buyers and sellers do not fall within the parameters set for
this taxation law but some businesses have been hit rather severely. The market that was
previously known for profit taking is likely to slow down in this regard too.
Pakistan could capitalize on the potential held by its realty sector by dealing with all the above
mentioned issues. Softer taxes, uprooting corruption and strengthening democracy could give
Pakistan real estate a boost.

Conclusion:
When we look at the present state of affairs in Pakistan real estate sector, many temporary
triggers such as sudden investment influx, sharp improvement in economy and profit taking
trends are absent in the market right now. All of this points towards the fact that the prevailing
property boom is far from experiencing a bubble bust.
REFERENCES:
http://www.zameen.com/
http://www.zameen.com/blog/a-pictorial-walk-through-zameens-history.html
http://www.moremag.pk/2014/09/03/the-man-responsible-for-revolutionising-the-realty-sectorof-pakistan/
http://propakistani.pk/2015/11/18/zameen-property-expo-2015-in-lahore-sees-massive-footfall/
http://www.zameen.com/blog/some-issues-affecting-pakistan-real-estate-sector.html