Despite the multitude of issues confronting Pakistan, real estate continues to show signs of recovery with a few luxury real estate projects (such as Bahria Town and Emaar Pakistan) popping up every now and then. The latest such project is Keystone Properties’ Oyster Court Luxury Residences.

Keystone Properties was established in 2007 to meet the rising demand for luxury hospitality, smart homes, well appointed offices and sophisticated malls. After four years of planning, in 2011 Keystone launched their hotel apartment project, Heritage Luxury Suites – The Moor, in Gulberg, Lahore. Oyster Court, Keystone’s second and latest venture, is a high-end luxury residential project. Also located in Gulberg, it is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2017 and promises to provide residents an ultra luxurious living with world class facilities and services.

Describing his company’s mission, Faizan Tariq, Project Head, Keystone Properties says “We believe your home and your workplace are extensions of your being – they ought to be as exclusive as you are.”

According to Tariq, after gauging the success of Heritage Luxury Suites for about a year, Keystone started working on the Oyster Court project in 2012.

“With almost two years of design and planning behind us, we believe that Oyster Court will go a long way to define a new scale of luxury living in Lahore. Most importantly, we are introducing completely managed, fashionable apartment living, which was unheard of in Lahore.”

Explaining further he says that Oyster will be a self-contained residential complex spread over 6,000 square yards with access from two roads. Two, seven-storey towers will consist of high-end apartments of one, two and three bedroom compositions, priced between Rs 20 to 55 million. Besides basic utilities, Oyster Court will offer other amenities such as swimming pools, spas, gyms, electronic key-card entry to parking and apartments, and housekeeping services.

Although the luxury real estate market has less than a five percent share in the overall property market, Tariq says Keystone Properties still sees high opportunity and potential in this particular space.

“A growing number of customers in the real estate sector have a taste for fashionable living and they value high quality design and finish. Furthermore, a high percentage of real estate investors are oversees Pakistanis who understand luxury property living because of their exposure to international properties and they would want to own a house in Pakistan, which is completely managed in their absence.”

To attract this high-net-worth clientele, Keystone’s directors have been personally involved in the designing and concept work for their marketing campaigns, which are largely the brainchild of CEO, Gohar Sharif Butt.

Starting with full page ads in the leading newspapers which talk about the exclusivity of Oyster Court, the company has also ventured into BTL promotions to interact with potential clients. This includes sponsoring the Pakistan Open Polo Cup (the Keystone Polo Cup) and face to face meetings with potential buyers at hotels such as PC Lahore and Movenpick Karachi, where replicas of Oyster Court have been placed to create interest.

Although Keystone has not written off the option of TVCs in the future, Tariq believes they can reach their target market more effectively through the use of targeted media.

“We have had a positive response to our initial print media campaign as we have already sold almost 20% of our space,” he adds.

With an aim to establish Oyster Court as the leading luxury property brand in Pakistan, Tariq says that timely completion, excellent post-construction management and exclusive finishing standards will help the company achieve its goals.