By Sadia Afrin
Dubai, UAE
Bangladeshi builder Bhaiya Housing Ltd, developer of the Tk200 billion (US$2 billion/Dh7.3 billion) Pine City, is offering Non-Resident Bangladeshis a whopping 500-1,000 percent Return on Investment (RoI) in its new development that is being developed at the outskirts of Dhaka – the capital city of Bangladesh, where price of land parcels are accelerating fast.
Bhaiya Housing Ltd, part of the Nabisco-Bhaiya Group, which made its fortune selling Nabisco Biscuits and safety matchsticks for the last five decades, is offering plots at the rate of Tk550,000 per katha (unit) – almost at the current market price, officials say.
In Bangladesh, one katha is standardised to 720 square feet (67 square metres), and 20 katha equals 1 bigha. A customer can build a small villa or a multistoried building on a 5-katha plot of land, with a floor size of 2,500 square feet per floor, as per the government regulations.
“This is a special price for Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) living in the UAE, who can multiply their return on investment within a few years,” Maroof Sattar Ali, Chairman of Bhaiya Housing Ltd, the second-generation businessman, said. “We are selling the same plot at Tk700,000 per katha (unit) and we are increasing the price to Tk1,000,000 per katha from next month. So, if any NRB brother purchases it at the rate of Tk550,000 special price now, they can easily sell it at Tk1,000,000 next month – so you see the near doubling of the return in a month’s time!
“Those investors who pay us the full amount and register the plot, we offer a buy-back guarantee with 100 percent profit on the investment! Besides, the price of the project will appreciate ten times to Tk2 trillion in the next five years, after we deliver the project – going by the current trends. So, all NRBs can multiply their investment tenfold in five years. No other investment will give you that kind of a return.”
Pine City is a master-planned community that will see the development of world-class infrastructure, roads, parks, mosque, schools, shopping malls, health club, boat club with a marina to dock yachts and other community facilities. The project, which is yet to be approved by competent government authorities, will be delivered by 2027, officials said.
Maroof Sattar Ali said, the price includes the price of land and the infrastructure and environmental works as per its initial drawings and master-plan. It however, doesn’t include the cost of registration, utility connections and service charges.
“We have so far acquired 40 percent of the 800 bigha we plan to develop as per the master-plan. We have already submitted the master-plan for government approval which we are expecting to receive soon,” Maroof Sattar Ali told Gulf Property in an exclusive interview.
More than 1.2 million Bangladeshi expatriates live, work and run businesses in the UAE, owning more than 100,000 businesses and employing more than 250,000 people. The majority of them do not own properties back home. Many prefer to relocate to better master-planned communities – such as those planned like Pine City – that promises to match international communities with all facilities and amenities.
Buyers of the land would be required to build their own homes on the land, or they could ask Bhaiya Housing to build homes for them.
Bhaiya Housing is part of the Bhaiya Group of Companies – a diversified business conglomerate with interests in food, beverage, real estate, industries, fisheries, farming and financial services – that has a legacy and reputation spanning more than five decades. It has delivered three building projects while a larger number of projects are currently being executed. Pine City is its first master-planned community while it is planning to launch a hotel in Cox’z Bazaar and another master-planned community near the river Padma.
Bangladesh with 144,700 square kilometres, host 168 million people that translate to a population density of 1,265 person sharing 1 square kilometres – making Bangladesh the most densly populated country in the world. The land prices will continue to jump every year due to the population growth and the shrinking of the landmass – due to climate change.
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