Est. IslamabadWorking in 14 countries
ZAK HOLDINGS is a master planning and development company. We work at the scale of territory — land, framework, infrastructure and fabric — and stay until the first streets are lived in.
01 Vision
A master plan is not a picture of a finished place. It is a set of decisions durable enough to survive forty years of people changing their minds.
We are commissioned when the question is larger than a building — when a government, a landowner or a fund holds ground and needs to know what it should become, in what order, and at whose cost.
Our work begins in survey and ends in occupation. Between those two points sits everything that decides whether a place will hold its value: water, grade, wind, movement, plot geometry, tenure, phasing, and the unglamorous arithmetic of who pays for the first road.
We keep the plan and the balance sheet on the same table. That single discipline is why our frameworks are still being built out a decade after the drawings were signed.
Topography, hydrology and soil set the plan before any programme does. We survey before we sketch, and we let the land refuse things.
Streets, blocks and plots outlive architecture. We design the permanent frame precisely and leave the buildings free to change.
Every phase is drawn to stand alone — complete, serviced and saleable — so the plan is never hostage to the next tranche of capital.
02 Projects
Six of thirty-eight commissions. Frameworks in planning, under construction and delivered — across South Asia, the Gulf and Central Asia.
In focus — Margalla Ridge
The site fell 118 metres across its length and carried three seasonal watercourses. Rather than terrace it flat, we ran the primary spine along the contour and let the blocks step — turning the drainage problem into the public realm, and cutting earthworks by a little under two thirds.
03 Master Planning
One method, four movements. We rarely skip a stage and we never begin at the third.
Survey, hydrology, geotechnics, ecology, tenure and law. We build a single truth model of the ground and everything already claimed on it, then test what the site will and will not tolerate.
Constraints mapping · Land assembly · Carrying capacity · Risk register
The permanent structure: movement hierarchy, block and plot geometry, utility corridors, density and height envelopes, open space and the rules that govern every parcel sold thereafter.
Street hierarchy · Plot subdivision · Design code · Infrastructure trunking
Typologies, frontage rules, material palette, shade and thermal behaviour, ground-floor uses. This is where a framework stops being a diagram and starts behaving like a place.
Typology sets · Frontage code · Public realm · Landscape strategy
Phasing and cash flow, procurement, plot release, contractor packages and site supervision. We stay through construction because plans fail in the gap between drawing and pour.
Phasing plan · Cost model · Plot release · Construction oversight
04 Investment
Master planning only pays when the money is patient enough to follow the phasing. We invest alongside our clients and, on selected sites, on our own account — which keeps our drawings honest about cost.
| Vehicle | Horizon | Typical scale | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Development capital | 5 — 9 yrs | USD 20 — 120 m | Co-invest |
| 02 Land banking & structuring | 7 — 15 yrs | USD 10 — 60 m | Principal |
| 03 Joint ventures | 4 — 10 yrs | Deal-dependent | Partner |
| 04 Asset & estate management | Evergreen | Portfolio | Manager |
Note
Figures indicate typical mandate size and are not an offer, solicitation or recommendation to invest. All commitments are subject to due diligence, definitive documentation and applicable regulation.
05 FAQ
Our frameworks typically begin around 40 hectares and run past 1,000. Below that scale the work is usually urban design rather than master planning, and we will say so — occasionally we take smaller sites where the brief is genuinely structural, such as a town centre or a transport interchange.
Pakistan, the Gulf, Central Asia, East Africa and South East Asia, from our office in Islamabad. We work with a local planning and engineering partner in every jurisdiction — statutory process, land law and utility practice are not things to learn on someone else's site.
Sometimes. We always write the code that governs them — typologies, frontages, heights, materials and thermal performance — and we design landmark and civic buildings where the framework depends on them. For the rest we prefer a plurality of architects; it is what makes a district read as a place rather than a product.
A framework plan for a mid-sized site runs nine to fifteen months from survey to approved document, including statutory consultation. Delivery is a different clock: first occupation is rarely under three years, and full build-out on our larger commissions is planned across fifteen to twenty-five.
On selected sites, yes — as co-investor, joint venture partner or principal. We look at land position, title, servicing route, absorption evidence and the credibility of the phasing before anything else. Send the site, the title position and what you have already spent.
Call +92 300 762 4815 or write to info@zakholdingspk.com. A first conversation costs nothing and usually takes half an hour. If the fit is right we will visit the site before we quote.
06 Contact
Office
Razia Sharif Plaza, 3rd Floor
Islamabad, 44000
Pakistan
Telephone
Hours
Monday — Friday
09:00 — 18:00 PKT