A 5 marla file in Prime Block and a 5 marla possession-ready plot in Block A are not the same product at two prices. They are two different products.
What you actually own
A balloted plot is a specific, numbered piece of land. You can stand on it. You can measure it. If the scheme stalls, you still own land.
A file is a claim on a future plot. You own a position in a queue. If the scheme stalls, you own a position in a queue that is not moving.
Pricing the gap
At the time of writing, the per-marla spread between the cheapest file and the most expensive possession-ready plot inside the scheme is roughly four times. That spread compresses at three moments:
- At balloting, when a file becomes a numbered plot.
- At development completion, when the block gets services.
- At possession handover, when construction can legally start.
An investor buying a file is buying all three of those compressions. An investor buying a possession-ready plot has already paid for them.
Who should buy which
Buy a file if you have held property through a full development cycle before, you do not need the capital for at least three years, and a delayed balloting would be an inconvenience rather than a problem.
Buy a possession-ready plot if you intend to build, if this is a meaningful share of your savings, or if you would need to exit quickly in a soft market. Liquidity in the settled blocks is materially better.
Neither answer is wrong. Choosing the file because it is cheap, without pricing the risk, is.