The increased demand for the housing has motivated different projects in different regions of the country. This has set a new real estate venture in federal city in Pakistan.

Islamabad based project of $2-billion, named Eighteen, was formally launched in Islamabad. The project is a partnership between Egypt-based Ora Developers and Saif Group, the Pakistani conglomerate with business interests in textile, energy, and real estate sectors. There is also a part of Kohistan Builders and Developers in the project.

The project was designed on 2.77 million square yards that will feature 18-hole golf course, 2,000 residential units, different sized 1,068 villas and over 900 apartments and many commercial properties to serve the upper-middle income groups.

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris will be back to Pakistan for this project after Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding, he has a majority stake and is also the chairman. Before the company sold its stake to VimpelCom he had gotten Mobilink.

Sawiris is now on a different mission to Pakistan. Sawiris, the chairman of Ora Developers, addressed a gathering of journalists at Serena Hotel and said that he was here around 20 years ago when started Mobilink.

“When we ventured out of telecom we thought of real estate development because of horrified prices, the people paying for villas and apartments in Islamabad. He further said referring to soaring prices of real estate in Pakistan that are continuously shooting in the last few years.

In Pakistan around 10 million housing units are short. This shortfall continues to grow in urban areas and this shortage will keep piling with population growth at 2% according to a World Bank estimate.

Sawiris added that he aimed to expand the project to other cities as well including Karachi and Lahore. But in the provincial capitals, the major challenge would be to find land.

Eighteen Islamabad Chief Executive Officer Tarek Hamdy said that the $2-billion project features a 30% component of equity, to be injected by the investors, along with a 30% stake to be financed with major banks in Pakistan. These modalities are ongoing.

He also said no-objection certificates have been obtained from the Capital Development Authority in Islamabad and transfer deeds to buyers since Eighteen Islamabad owns the land already.