What it costs to build a padel court in Pakistan — and what it earns
Updated
In short
A purpose-built padel court in Pakistan runs roughly PKR 4–15 million depending on structure, glass and turf, with modular systems at the lower end and premium panoramic courts at the top. What decides whether it pays back is not the build cost but utilisation — the hours per day you actually sell.
- Published figures cluster at PKR 10–15m for a full purpose-built court; lighter modular systems start nearer PKR 2–4m.
- Glass, turf and the steel frame are the bulk of it; floodlighting and the slab are the costs people forget.
- Hourly rates on Sportel's 25 live venues are the revenue side of the equation — the table below works the payback from them.
- At typical rates, the difference between selling 3 hours a day and 6 is the difference between a long payback and a good business.
- Everything below is gross of rent, staff and utilities, which in Pakistan are usually the deciding costs.
Padel is the fastest-growing sport in urban Pakistan and the maths for operators is genuinely attractive — but the numbers circulating are all over the place, quoted by suppliers with something to sell, and almost always about the build alone. The build is the easy half to research.
This page does both halves. The cost figures are the published ranges from Pakistani suppliers and operators; the revenue figures are computed from the actual hourly rates of every venue listed on Sportel, updated hourly. Nobody else can publish the second half, because nobody else holds the rates.
| Build | 3 hrs/day sold | 5 hrs/day sold | 7 hrs/day sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modular / lighter buildRs 4,000,000 | 11 monthsRs 360,000/mo gross | 7 monthsRs 600,000/mo gross | 5 monthsRs 840,000/mo gross |
| Mid-range purpose buildRs 9,000,000 | 25 monthsRs 360,000/mo gross | 15 monthsRs 600,000/mo gross | 11 monthsRs 840,000/mo gross |
| Premium panoramic courtRs 14,000,000 | 39 monthsRs 360,000/mo gross | 23 monthsRs 600,000/mo gross | 17 monthsRs 840,000/mo gross |
Modelled at Rs 4,000 per hour — the median starting rate across every padel venue listed on Sportel, updated hourly. Gross revenue only: rent, staff, electricity, backup power and card fees come out of these figures, and in Pakistan they are usually what decides the business. Build costs are the published ranges from Pakistani suppliers and operators, not quotes.
What the build actually consists of
A padel court is a 20m × 10m steel frame carrying tempered glass panels and mesh, standing on a level base, dressed with sand-filled artificial turf and lit well enough for night play. Those five items are effectively the whole cost, and they are the five places suppliers differ.
- Structure and glass — 10–12mm tempered panels on a galvanised frame. The single biggest line, and the one where cheap options show up fastest as flex and rattle.
- Turf — sand-dressed monofilament, typically 12mm. Wears out and needs re-sanding; budget for replacement every few years, not once.
- Base — a level concrete slab or compacted aggregate with real drainage. Skipped or rushed more often than any other item, and the most expensive to fix afterwards.
- Floodlighting — LED, mounted to avoid glare into the glass. In Pakistan this is not optional: evenings are the revenue.
- Everything else — fencing, nets, a shaded seating area, the small building that makes it a club rather than a court.
The number nobody quotes you: running cost
Rent or land opportunity cost, electricity for floodlights, a person on the desk from morning to past midnight, cleaning, turf maintenance, card fees on every booking. In practice these decide the business, not the build — a court that cost PKR 12m and sells six hours a day beats one that cost PKR 6m and sells two.
Load-shedding deserves its own line. Venues running late slots in Lahore and Karachi are either on backup or losing their best hours, and the cost of that backup belongs in the model from day one.
Utilisation is the whole game
A padel court has roughly sixteen sellable hours a day and four of them — the evening block — are worth two or three times the rest. Nearly every operator in Pakistan sells that block out and struggles to fill mornings, which is why the payback table above swings so hard on hours sold.
The lever most operators miss is that daytime demand exists but is invisible: people who would happily play at 11am don't know which courts are free, so they don't come. That is a distribution problem rather than a demand problem, and it is the reason listing on a marketplace with live availability moves utilisation at all.
What the day actually looks like
The hours a court can sell are not evenly valuable, and in Pakistan the shape is unusually extreme. Every venue in the country is open between 3pm and 11pm; well under half open before 10am; and 72% of opening days run past midnight, with one Islamabad club selling slots until 4am.
That shape is the business. The evening block sells itself and is effectively capped — you cannot add hours to it. Everything above break-even comes from the hours either side, which is why so many operators open at 3pm and simply concede the morning. It is a defensible choice, but it means a court that cost the same as its neighbour's is being asked to pay for itself on two-thirds of the day.
What operators here get wrong
- Budgeting the court and forgetting the site. The slab, drainage, fencing, lighting and a shaded seating area routinely add a third to a quote that covered only the court.
- Planning for the evening. Evenings sell out at every club in the country; a plan that assumes them and ignores daytime is a plan with no margin in it.
- No backup power. In Lahore and Karachi the difference between a court with reliable power and one without is the difference between selling the best hours and losing them.
- Under-lighting. Most play here is after dark. Saving on floodlights saves money on the one input every paying customer experiences.
- Taking bookings over WhatsApp. It works at one court and collapses at three — and it makes daytime demand invisible, because nobody knows what is free without asking.
Questions worth asking before you sign
- Is the quote for the court only, or does it include the slab, lighting and installation? This is where quotes stop being comparable.
- What glass thickness, and is it tempered throughout or only on the back walls?
- Who does the installation, and have they built in Pakistan before? Imported kits with an inexperienced crew is a common and expensive combination.
- What is the warranty on the structure, and what does it exclude?
- What does re-sanding and turf replacement cost, and how often?
- What is the realistic lead time, and what are the payment stages?
Common questions
How much does it cost to build a padel court in Pakistan?
Published figures from Pakistani suppliers and operators cluster around PKR 10–15 million for a full purpose-built court, with some purpose-build estimates as low as PKR 4–6 million and lighter modular systems from around PKR 2–4 million. The spread is real and comes down to glass, frame and whether the quote includes the base and lighting.
How long does a padel court take to pay back in Pakistan?
It depends almost entirely on hours sold per day, not on what you spent. The table on this page works it through at real market rates — at typical hourly pricing, moving from three sold hours a day to six roughly halves the payback period.
Is a padel court a good business in Pakistan?
The demand is genuine and growing fastest in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The risk is not demand, it is utilisation outside the evening block and running costs — particularly power. Model it on realistic daytime occupancy rather than on a full evening schedule, and the answer is usually still yes.
What size is a padel court?
20 metres by 10 for a doubles court, enclosed to 4 metres at the back and 3 metres at the sides, with the net at roughly tennis height. You need meaningful clearance around that footprint for access and seating, so plan on more ground than the court dimensions alone suggest.
How many hours a day does a padel court need to sell?
Evenings sell themselves in every Pakistani city; the business is made or lost between 9am and 5pm. Most operators here run comfortably above break-even once they are consistently selling five or more hours a day across the week.
Thinking about opening a court?
Sportel fills the daytime hours that decide whether a court pays back — live availability, real prices, and players already looking.