Three households buy three floors of the same townhouse. Each has their own documents, their own meters and their own front door. None of them owns the land underneath, in the way a plot owner does — what each owns is a defined home within a defined building, plus a defined share of the parts everyone has to use.
That last clause is where these arrangements go wrong in Pakistan, and it is where most of our paperwork goes.
Who holds what
| Part of the building | Ground | First | Second |
|---|---|---|---|
| The floor itself | Exclusive | Exclusive | Exclusive |
| Street entrance | Exclusive | — | — |
| Staircase and landings | — | Shared | Shared |
| Roof terrace | — | — | Exclusive |
| Electricity and gas meter | Own | Own | Own |
| Water tank and pump | Shared | Shared | Shared |
| Structure and foundations | Shared | Shared | Shared |
“Shared” here has a specific meaning, with a cost-sharing ratio and a decision rule attached. Both are set out on the common areas page rather than left to goodwill.
The three prices
The floors are not priced equally, because they are not equally desirable. The ground floor carries a street door; the second floor carries the roof; the first floor carries neither, and is priced accordingly.
- Ground Floor — Rs. 57,50,000. What this floor is like
- First Floor — Rs. 55,00,000. What this floor is like
- Second Floor — Rs. 52,50,000. What this floor is like
The four questions everyone asks
What if one of my neighbours is difficult?
The honest answer is that two neighbours in one building is a real relationship, and no document makes a difficult person easy. What the documents do is remove the ambiguity that turns ordinary friction into a dispute: who pays for the pump, who may use the stairwell for storage, what happens when the roof needs waterproofing. Those are settled in advance and in writing.
Can I sell without asking the other two?
Yes. Your floor is yours to transfer, subject to the same clearance any buyer needs from us — which is that your instalments are paid up. The other owners do not get a veto. See resale.
What if one owner stops paying their instalments?
It affects them, not you. Each floor is a separate contract with a separate schedule, and the arrears on one have no bearing on the other two. See what happens if you miss one.
Will a bank lend against one floor?
This depends on the bank and on the instrument, and we would rather you got the answer from the bank than from us. What we can do is give you the exact documentation a credit officer will ask for, which is on what you actually receive. If a lender has told you no, tell us which lender and what they said — that is useful to us and to the next buyer.
Why this is not the Karachi arrangement
You may have read about portions and extra floors being sealed in Karachi, with sub-registrars instructed not to register transfers. That is a crackdown on construction and subdivision done without approval — on buildings where the extra floor should not exist at all.
The difference is not our good intentions. It is whether the building was approved to be what it is, by the authority entitled to approve it, before it was built and sold. That is a question with a documentary answer, and the answer is on this page.