[shehryarrr]

First love seeing more Pakistani founders! And second - this is super interesting (I'm a first generation kid - parents also came from Pakistan) my parents basically route this all through trusted family right now, have property back home they manage, and this could have made everything WAY simpler.

Congrats on the launch and excited to see where this goes!

[anovikov]

My question - why do they keep property back there? Are rental yields in Pakistan very high?

[alex_smart]

I don't know specifically about Pakistan, but at least in India the returns on real estate are very good, especially in second-tier cities.

So many people, only so much land. Rising incomes and steady urbanization. Yada yada yada.

Also, part of it is just culture. I know that people in my parents' generation are not very comfortable investing in the stock market. Real estate is seen as a safe investment with a steady, if low, rental yield.

[khanzain]

It is also a mindset of many immigrants: always have a backup plan. My parents have lived outside of Pakistan for over 40 years and recently moved to the USA. In all that time they always had a home back in Pakistan and kept investing in more property. I am sure this is the case with immigrants from most other countries also.

[H8crilA]

I am a younger immigrant and plan on doing exactly that.

One big part of the "oh shit, let's go back" plan is that it's usually so much cheaper to set things in your country of origin. Some real estate, some investments and you're set for life for a fraction of what it costs in a more expensive country. Or, alternatively, you can see this as an arbitrage: get income in a high income country, spend it in a low income country. For example, just three of my monthly salaries are larger than the median net worth back home. Think if you wouldn't try to exploit such massive inequality yourself.

[go_elmo]

Only thing I dont get: why not save / invest otherwise & buy there when youre "sure" youll use it? I think the norm is already to sell properties of 20 years later, realizing they wont or cant really be used and having quite large missed revenues due to it. Why e.g. have a huge house & use it 2 weeks a year max?

[H8crilA]

Oh, I'm going to lease my apartments for sure :)

Local stocks are also pretty attractive, not nearly as much attention is being paid to them as to the big international names.

[go_elmo]

This is true! Most money can be made where no one is looking that closely :) but of course there is a larger risk for smaller companies and single, rather developing countries (expect for maybe the US which is hard to hit hard without also affecting any other market)

[anovikov]

Well, it is natural because those countries have a lot higher risk profile. Meaning, their stocks could make 2-3 extra percents per year but this is the price of risk of something really bad when they go to zero, say Taliban takeover, or Communist revolution, or a hot war with India...

[wu_187]

It's way cheaper to retire back in the home country after you've made your money in the states. A side benefit is that you can rent out the property before retirement which nets you a small income and keeps the property maintained. My in-laws own about a dozen properties in the Philippines, half of which they rent out, and a couple are being used by their kids. Collectively they make enough from the rentals to get by.

[shehryarrr]

It's not a rental but the returns on just the plots of land have been good. Their original idea was to retire back home and build a family compound. That's changed since but they still have some of the properties. More and more of the country is getting modern developments and so the return on these has been pretty good.

[debarshri]

It might be inheritance.

[notsureaboutpg]

In South Asia, land is at a premium due to high population. You can buy basically any piece of land anywhere and its value rises a lot each year. My father-in-law owns swampland in South Asia which is still rising in value despite being a huge burden to actually develop.

In addition, property ownership is limited in a way it is not in the West (only citizens can own property, as an example, in India), so it's an advantage you want to retain as a migrant over non-natives.

[baybal2]

It's also because more land can be farmed, and thus farming is still a very valid option to earn income for small land owner.

You can't make any money with a 10000 kanal plot in Russia.

In Pakistan, you can't buy 10000 kanal plot for any money, such big plots are almost never sold. An average person can live a carefree life with a cash cow plot 10 times smaller.

1000 kanal plot reasonably close to a major city in Pakistan will cost in tens of millions, and are very rare finds.