CDA cancels auction of 7 Islamabad petrol pump sites a day after all 5 hotel plots go unsold

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has cancelled the auction of seven petrol pump sites in Islamabad that was due on Tuesday, 13 October, after its sale of five hotel plots the day before ended with no plot sold, ProPakistani reported.

The petrol pump sites

The seven sites were to go as a single package on a 20-year lease, and only registered oil marketing companies could bid. They are:

• Murree Road, near Lake View Park
• Blue Area
• F-10
• I-12 Markaz
• G-8 Markaz
• G-8/1
• G-11/1

CDA has not given a new date or said whether the reserve price for the package will change.

What happened at the hotel plot auction

On Monday CDA offered five hotel plots in D-12 Markaz, F-5/1, the Northern Strip of E-11 and along Srinagar Highway between the Sports Complex and the Margalla Hotel.

• Only five registered bidders took part.
• One plot drew a single bid, just Rs 5,000 above its reserve price.
• CDA turned that bid down because there was no competition, so all five plots stayed unsold.

Investors told the authority that reserve prices above Rs 1.9 million per square yard were too high and that the plots should be priced at no more than Rs 1.3 million per square yard, a gap of about 30 per cent.

What it means

Two failed sales in two days suggest buyers think its prices are ahead of the market. For a 1,000 square yard plot, the gap between the two prices quoted is about Rs 600 million.

If you are weighing an Islamabad commercial plot yourself, our plot size converter turns square yards into marla and kanal, the stamp duty calculator shows the transfer cost, and the rental yield calculator tests whether the rent justifies the price.

We will update this story when CDA sets new auction dates.