A “file” in DHA Lahore is the right to a plot that has not yet been marked on the ground. You are not buying a plot number you can stand on — you are buying a paper that will become a plot when DHA holds its balloting. Files are the cheapest way into DHA, and also the easiest place for a newcomer to make an expensive mistake.
What exactly is a file?
When DHA launches or extends a phase, plots do not exist yet — the land is being acquired and planned. DHA issues papers against future plots, and the market starts trading those papers years before possession. The plot number, block and location come later, at balloting. Until then, every file of the same size in the same scheme is worth the same as every other.
Allocation files
An allocation file is the stronger kind: the holder's name is entered in DHA's own record, and the file transfers at DHA's transfer office like a normal plot. When people quote “DHA file rates” for a phase, they usually mean allocation files.
Affidavit files
An affidavit file is an earlier-stage paper, based on an undertaking rather than a completed entry in DHA's record. It is usually cheaper than an allocation file of the same size — and that discount is the price of extra risk. The chain of previous holders matters, and verification takes more care. Treat an affidavit file as a professional's instrument, not a first purchase.
What moves file prices
Files trade like shares of a future plot, so news moves them: balloting announcements, development pace, transfer-fee changes and the general market cycle. Prices can move in lakhs within weeks — in both directions. Never buy a file on a single phone call's information.
Before you buy any file
Verify the file at DHA's transfer office before paying anything beyond a token — not from photocopies. Confirm the seller chain, confirm the dues and surcharges that are outstanding, and deal through an office that will still answer its phone next year.
We publish DHA Lahore file rates on MiroEstate every day, taken from the market itself — see the File Rates page for today's numbers. And if you want a file checked before you commit, our own office in DHA Lahore does exactly that: +92 334 7992992.