How to sell a domain in Pakistan

Decide whether the name is worth selling

Most domains are worth only what it costs to register them again. A buyer will pay more than that only when your name saves them something: a short word people already search for, a business or city name, a brand they are about to launch, or a .pk that matches a .com they already own.

Before you spend time on a listing, be honest about which group your domain falls into. A long made-up word with numbers in it will not sell, no matter how it is priced. A short, plain, spellable name in a real industry usually will, given time. Our guide on what a domain is worth walks through the checks buyers actually make.

One rule from the registry to keep in mind: a bare .pk name must be at least four characters, so very short .pk names simply do not exist and cannot be compared with three-letter .com prices.

Set an asking price and a private minimum

Start from the floor. PKNIC's price list shows a .pk domain costs Pakistan-based registrants ₨2,100 per year, charged in two-year blocks, so anyone can get a fresh .pk for about ₨4,200. At the time of writing, a new .com from a Pakistani seller runs roughly ₨3,000–4,000 for the first year, and renewals are usually higher. If your domain is not clearly better than a fresh registration, your price has to sit close to those numbers.

Then decide two figures and write them down:

• Asking price. The number on the listing. Leave room above your minimum, because buyers in Pakistan expect to negotiate and will almost always offer less.
• Private minimum. The lowest number you will actually accept. Keep this to yourself. When an offer comes in below it, you can say no quickly instead of arguing with yourself at 11pm.

Round numbers look like guesses. ₨35,000 reads better than ₨30,000 or ₨50,000 because it suggests you have thought about it. Do not add "or best offer" to the listing; it tells buyers the asking price is not real.

Where buyers come from, and how each place goes wrong

Pakistani domain deals happen in three places. Each one has its own habits and its own scams.

Facebook groups

Buy-and-sell groups bring volume but little trust. The common trick is the fake payment screenshot: a buyer sends a picture of a JazzCash or bank transfer that never happened and pushes you to transfer the domain "since the money is already sent". Never act on a screenshot. Only your own bank or wallet app tells you whether money arrived.

WhatsApp

Many deals move to WhatsApp after a first contact. The scam to watch here is the reversed payment. A buyer pays into your JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet, you transfer the domain, and then the buyer raises a dispute or claims the transfer was a mistake, and you are left arguing with a stranger after you have already given up the domain. Bank transfers and Raast are harder to reverse, but by then you are relying on a stranger's honesty.

Marketplaces and auction sites

Foreign marketplaces have more buyers for .com names but price in dollars, take a cut, and leave you to work out how to get the money into a Pakistani bank account. On any marketplace, including ours, be suspicious of a "buyer" who asks you to pay something first: a transfer fee, an appraisal fee, a verification charge. A real buyer pays you. You never pay a buyer.

Why escrow protects the seller too

Escrow is usually sold to buyers, but the seller has just as much to lose. Without it, you either transfer first and hope the money comes, or you insist on money first and watch the buyer walk away because they do not trust you either.

With SastiDomains in the middle, the order is fixed. The buyer pays us. We confirm the money has actually cleared, not a screenshot, before we ask you to transfer. You hand over the domain. The buyer confirms they control it. We pay you within 24 hours of that confirmation, to your bank account or Raast ID (or a JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet if the amount is within the wallet's limit). A reversed wallet payment cannot touch you, because the buyer's money never went to your wallet in the first place.

Get the domain ready before you list

Sales fall apart when the seller cannot actually move the domain when the time comes. Sort these out first:

• Know your registrar login. If someone else registered the domain for you (a web designer, a hosting company, a cousin), get the account details now. You cannot sell what you cannot access.
• Keep it renewed. A domain that expires mid-deal is a dead deal. If it has less than two months left, renew before listing.
• Unlock it. Most .com registrars put a transfer lock on by default. Find the setting and know how to turn it off, but leave it on until a buyer has paid.
• Check the 60-day rule. ICANN's transfer policy lets a registrar deny a transfer requested within 60 days of the domain being created, and tells registrars to lock a domain for 60 days after a change of registrant unless you opted out of the lock beforehand. If you registered or changed the owner details of a .com recently, you may have to wait before it can move.
• Know the .pk process. .pk and .com.pk domains are handled by PKNIC, not by ICANN registrars, so the 60-day rules above do not apply and the paperwork is different. Read our .pk transfer guide before listing a .pk.
• Be able to edit DNS. We verify sellers with a TXT record (next section), so make sure you can reach the DNS settings.

Listing to payout on SastiDomains

1. Submit the listingFill in the domain, your asking price in rupees, and a WhatsApp number. Listing is free and takes a couple of minutes.
2. Prove you control itWe send you a short TXT record to add to the domain's DNS. Once it shows up, the listing goes live. This shows you control the domain; it is not a legal ownership check.
3. Receive offersBuyers either buy at your price or send an offer. We pass offers to you on WhatsApp. Accept, counter, or decline. Your private minimum does the deciding.
4. Buyer pays usOnce a price is agreed, the buyer pays SastiDomains by bank transfer, Raast, JazzCash or Easypaisa. We tell you when it has cleared.
5. Transfer the domainWe guide both sides through the registrar's or PKNIC's steps. For a .com this is usually an auth code and an unlock; for a .pk it follows PKNIC's process.
6. Buyer confirms, you get paidWhen the buyer confirms the domain is in their control, we send your money within 24 hours, minus the 10% commission.

Fees and tax

There is one fee. When a sale completes, SastiDomains keeps 10% of the agreed price and sends you the rest. Listing is free, offers are free, and a listing that never sells costs you nothing. The buyer pays the agreed price and nothing on top.

Whether a domain sale is taxable income for you depends on your situation. We do not give tax advice; ask an accountant, especially if you sell more than one or the amount is large.

How long it takes

Verification is usually done the same day you add the TXT record. Finding a buyer is the slow part: a good name can take weeks or months, and there is no way to hurry that except pricing sensibly. Once a buyer pays, a .com transfer between registrars usually completes within about a week (ICANN's policy gives the old registrar five days to respond), and we pay you within 24 hours of the buyer's confirmation. .pk timing depends on PKNIC's process, which we cover in the transfer guide.