This study is the first to perform a focalized analysis on city development, sustainable urban planning, and the negative impact of slum area disamenity on property valuation in suburban and posh areas of the Islamabad region, Pakistan. Slums exist in almost every country in the world. However, in the process of urbanization and city development, researchers have focused merely on the crumbled infrastructure, crimes, and other social problems associated with slums. Studies have covered the adverse effects of these factors on property value, although this unmatched study is the first to examine the negative impact of slum proximity on the valuation of properties in the surrounding areas and on the rental value of houses located in Islamabad. The survey method is applied to obtain feedback from inhabitants, and the study incorporated the hedonic price model to assess rental values within a range of one kilometer from selected slum areas. The findings revealed that slum neighborhoods negatively impact sustainable house rental values, as compared with the rental values of houses located far away. Rents became higher as the distance from the slums increased. The results showed that having slums in the vicinity caused a decline of almost 10% in rent. However, the rental value of a similar house unit, located 500 meters away, was found to be almost 10% higher. In the semi-log model, house rental values increased by approximately 12.40% at a distance of one kilometer from slums, and vice versa. This study will use residents’ feedback to help government officials and policymakers to resolve slum issues, which is essential for maintaining sustainable development and adequate city planning. This study sample’s findings are not generalizable to all slums, as the results are specific to this region.

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Pakistan’s agricultural sector growth is dwindling from the last several years due to insufficient foreign direct investment (FDI) and a drastic climate change-induced raise in temperature, which are severely affecting agricultural production. The FDI has paramount importance for the economy of developing countries as well as the improvement of agricultural production. Based on the time series data from 1984 to 2017, this paper aims to highlight the present situation of the agriculture sector of Pakistan and empirically analyze the short-run and long-run impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI), climate change, and CO2 emissions on agricultural productivity and causality among the variables. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) model and Granger Causality test were employed to find out the long-run, short-run, and causal relationships among the variables of interest. Furthermore, we have employed the Error Correction Model (ECM) to know the convergence of the equilibrium path. The bound test results verified the existence of a long-run association, and the empirical findings confirmed that Chinese FDI has a significant and positive impact, while climate change and CO2 emissions has negative impact on the agricultural growth of Pakistan both in the short-run and long-run. Granger Causality test results revealed that variables of interest exhibit bi-directional and uni-directional causality. The sector-wise flow of FDI reveals that the agriculture sector of Pakistan has comparatively received a less amount of FDI than other sectors of the economy. Based on the findings, it was suggested to the Government of Pakistan and policymakers to induce more FDI in the agriculture sector. Such policies would be helpful for the progress of the agriculture sector as well as for the economic growth of Pakistan.

Over time, the government of Pakistan introduced several strategies to deal with the issue of slums in its capital city, Islamabad. Contrary to the traditional strategies that primarily focus on the tenure security of occupants, the strategy of slum redevelopment is more composite. It involves the up-gradation of slums in their existing sites as well as the demolition of slums from the posh areas. The present study is first to empirically investigates the outcomes of the slums redevelopment policies on the value of adjacent residential properties. Using a rental valuation based hedonic price model, the study examined the spillover effects of an urban slum up-gradation and eviction projects on the nearby housing values. The results show that the redevelopment of slums reduces the adverse effects on residential value. It is essential for the urban planners to cautiously include the slum redevelopment projects spillover effects on the adjacent property value in different geographical locations, to maximize the net positive effects of improvements on the neighborhood.