First Dawood completes first building

After three decades on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, First Dawood Properties Ltd (FDPL) has finally put bricks-and-mortar to its name. In a regulatory notice on 22 July 2025 the company confirmed that it has “successfully completed construction of its first property project in Ayubia Commercial, Phase VII (Ext.), DHA, Karachi” and is now courting tenants for Shariah-compliant rental income.

Standing on a 100-square-yard corner plot bought for roughly Rs35 million six months earlier, the five-storey mixed-use block adds around 4,500 sq ft of lettable space to one of the Defence Housing Authority’s tightest commercial grids. Similar plots on the same strip have recently fetched Rs3.5–5 crore, according to Zameen.com listings, with grey-structure construction in DHA Karachi now costing between Rs3,500 and 5,500 per square foot. On that basis, estate advisers interviewed for this article place FDPL’s all-in investment at roughly Rs80-90 million (US $280-310 k), excluding fit-outs – a manageable outlay for a balance-sheet that now exceeds Rs1 billion.

Management is marketing the property as a “riba-free” income stream, emphasising fixed rentals and an avoidance of interest-based escalation clauses. Sources close to the company say two national retail chains and a regional micro-finance bank have separately expressed interest, with opening rents guided around Rs450-500 per square foot per month – enough to deliver a gross yield of 25-30 percent on cost once the building is fully occupied.

For FDPL, the hand-over is more than a ribbon-cutting: it is proof-of-concept for a long-promised pivot from dusty investment banking licences to bricks, leases and NAV re-ratings.