The Punjab government has officially ended its policy of granting free commercial rights to landowners and investors who purchased land along structure plan roads, dealing a major blow to those who invested early in such areas.
Under the previous policy, investors would buy low-cost land near proposed structure plan roads and later convert the surrounding land into commercial use without additional charges, often generating significant profits. However, this practice has now been discontinued.
The change has been implemented through an amendment to Rule 37, Sub-Rule 9 of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Land Use Rules 2020. A formal gazette notification has also been issued to enforce the new regulation.
According to the updated rules, no investor or landowner will be able to benefit from free commercial conversion. The restriction also applies to developers and housing society owners, who will no longer be eligible for this facility.
The new policy further states that the LDA will be required to acquire land in all cases for main roads and missing links. Even for the development of structure plan roads, the government must obtain the land directly, and no free commercial rights will be granted in return.
In the past, many investors took advantage of this policy by purchasing inexpensive land near planned road projects and later converting it into commercial property, earning millions of rupees. With this policy now revoked, that opportunity has been eliminated.
The impact will be particularly significant for investors who bought land near under-construction projects such as Pine Avenue Extension, Neelum Road, and other link roads, as they will no longer benefit from the previous policy.
While the policy change is expected to affect investors negatively, it will also place a financial burden on the LDA. The authority will now have to spend billions of rupees to acquire land for road development, which may increase financial pressure and slow down the completion of new structure plan roads and missing links.
