UAE hosts Pakistan Real Estate, Investment Expo

Monitoring Desk

KARACHI: The UAE’s first of its kind exhibition dedicated to Pakistan’s real estate companies, builders and developers, the ‘Real Estate and Investment Pakistan Expo’ (RIPE) was recently held in Sharjah, UAE.

Hosted at the Sharjah Expo Centre, the first edition of the two-day expo brought together a host of Gulf property investors and international financiers, who showed their great interest in tapping into Pakistan’s rapidly-growing real estate market.

Belonging to such major cities as Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Gawadar and others, the cream of Pakistan’s real estate sector showcased it’s both current and future projects and featured exclusive deals and spot sales at the Expo.

Amongst the scores of investment options offered to investors from the Middle East and ASEAN regions, Pakistan’s leading housing projects, apartments, villas, residential schemes, commercial offices and plots were also put on display at the event. Pakistan Business Council of the UAE set up a special stand at the exhibition to welcome those overseas Pakistanis looking for investment opportunities in their homeland Pakistan. In the next years, the exhibition will also be held in Brunei, U.K. and the United States.

‘Since Pakistan has become a priority market for global investors, it is becoming more than essential to host such events in foreign countries to highlight the immense potential offered by the country’s real estate sector,’ said Adnan Iqbal, the man behind the UAE-based Real Estate and Investment Pakistan Expo (RIPE), the flag-bearer of Pakistan’s booming real estate industry.

Iqbal said there are nearly 1.3 million Pakistanis currently living in the UAE, making up one of the largest expatriate communities in the country. Therefore, the need for investment back home has surged a demand for such events, as it has just been shown by the successful holding of the exhibition participated by a large number of real estate developers, builders and commercial property owners from Pakistan, he added.

This year, the Real Estate and Investment Pakistan Expo’ was held under the patronage of Ahmed Shaikhani, President, Pakistan Business Council, Dubai, Kamran Khan, Commercial Attaché, Pakistan Embassy, Abu Dhabi and Irfan Afsar Awan, a core-committee member of the ‘Socho Pakistan’ (Think Pakistan) initiative.