The Central Business District of Bahria Town Phase 8: an overview

What is the Central Business District of Bahria Town Phase 8?

Bahria Town Phase VIII is part of the Rawalpindi/Islamabad twin-city area, and its Central Business District – often shortened to CBD, or simply called the Business District – is, as the name suggests, the part of the phase planned around business. When buyers search for shops or commercial space in Bahria Town Phase 8, this is usually the district they have in mind.

This overview sticks to what the developer of China Center has published: the address, the site plans and the places marked on the brochure map. It gives no distances or drive times, because none are published, and it names no landmark that is not on the developer’s map. Everything else is for you to check on the ground.

Where is China Center in the CBD?

The developer prints the address as Plot no. 563, Central Business District, Bahria Town, Phase VIII, Islamabad. Use that exact form when you ask for directions, search a map or check documents; small differences in how a plot address is written can cause confusion later.

The developer’s site plans show the plot’s setting. China Center stands on the corner plot of its row: its long side faces Lake View Boulevard, Link Road runs along its short end, and a service lane runs behind. For a retail building that arrangement matters. The boulevard frontage is the building’s public face, and a lane behind is the kind of access a shopkeeper will want to understand for deliveries, so ask the desk how it will be used.

• Address: Plot no. 563, Central Business District, Bahria Town, Phase VIII, Islamabad
• Plot: the corner plot of its row
• Long side: facing Lake View Boulevard
• Short end: along Link Road
• Behind: a service lane

What places does the developer’s map mark around the CBD?

The developer’s brochure map marks the following places around the site. The map gives no distances, and neither does this guide; use the list to orient yourself, then check journeys in person.

Taken together, the map shows the CBD among residential neighbourhoods, a mosque and a school – the places whose residents any shop in the district would hope to serve. How near each one is, and how easily people reach the CBD from it, is something to see for yourself rather than assume from a map.

• Bahria Intellectual Village
• Sector F
• Zaraj Housing Society
• Zone I
• Bahria Greens
• Business District
• Jamia Masjid Malik Riaz Hussain
• Roots Millennium School
• Bahria Safari Valley
• Bahria Hamlet
• Ascon Villas
• Sector E Phase 8
• Club City
• Block F1
• Bahria Town

What does a CBD address mean for a shop buyer?

For a retailer, a business-district address signals the intended use of the area: a place where people are expected to come to shop, eat and do business. It is not a promise that they will. At China Center, the owner’s planned focus for each floor – babies’ and kids’ products on the lower ground; ladies’ fashion, jewellery and cosmetics at street level; home décor on the first floor; mobiles, laptops and gadgets on the second; restaurants and terrace dining on the 8th – is the owner’s plan, not a signed tenant, a lease or a promise of footfall; ask at booking what it means for your trade.

Street level carries a price for its frontage. Ground-floor shops are Rs 55,000 per sq ft on the developer’s current inventory sheet, against Rs 40,000 on the lower ground, first and second floors – Rs 15,000 more per sq ft. A 100 sq ft ground-floor shop such as G33 is Rs 55,00,000: Rs 16,50,000 down, 24 instalments of Rs 1,37,500 each and Rs 5,50,000 on possession, confirmed at booking. The guide to buying a shop in Bahria Town Phase 8 (/guides/buying-a-shop-in-bahria-town-phase-8) covers choosing between floors.

What does the CBD mean for someone who wants to live there?

Living in a business district is different from living on a residential street. You gain shops and food close at hand if the district fills out as planned, and you accept more activity around the building than a quiet lane would have. China Center reflects that mix: shops on the lower floors and homes above – studios and one-bed apartments on the typical plan for floors 3 to 6, with no published price, and apartments of 450 and 650 sq ft on the 7th floor at Rs 67,50,000 and Rs 97,50,000.

The developer’s intent is also a place where Chinese professionals and businesses in Pakistan can shop, eat and live. That is positioning, not a restriction: Pakistani and overseas-Pakistani buyers purchase at China Center too, and nothing in the district is reserved for one community.

How should I check the CBD before I buy?

A map and a site plan tell you where things are; only a visit tells you what the area is like. Go at different times – a weekday morning, an evening, a weekend – and walk the Lake View Boulevard frontage, the Link Road end and the service lane. Drive from the places that matter to you, whether home, work or the neighbourhoods on the brochure map, and time the journeys yourself.

While you are there, look at the building itself: the site film shows the structure up (its filming date is to be confirmed), and the images elsewhere on the site are artist’s impressions. Then WhatsApp Al Faisal Properties on +92 334 9107537 to book a site visit and ask for the official schedule for any unit you are considering. The location page (/location) has the site plans and the full list of map places.

• Visit at different times of day and on different days of the week
• Walk Lake View Boulevard, Link Road and the service lane
• Time your own journeys from the places that matter to you
• Check the address exactly as printed on every document
• Ask the desk how access and deliveries will work