Qatar’s real estate market is on a steady path to recovery
After hitting record lows in September 2016, Qatar’s real estate prices showed a steady recovery in the final quarter of the year (October to December).
The rebound happened after the price index had declined steadily in the previous quarter (July-September), according to The Peninsula.
According to updated statistics released by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), the country’s real estate price index in December 2016 hit 279.1pts, a quarter-on-quarter growth of 4.6% compared to 266.8pts in September 2016.
On month-on-month basis, the December 2016 index inched-up by 2.2pts from 276.9pts in November 2016, showing a marginal growth of 0.79%.
The real estate market hit the highest level of growth in 2016, 307.6pts, in March.
The all-time high of real estate price index (311pts) was achieved in November 2015.
Ezdan Group’s report on real estate market said that the market remained stable and calm in 2016. The combined value of real estate transactions last year was QR27.6bn, about 50% down compared to QR56.bn in 2015.
However, the report suggested that the decline in the total value of transactions in 2016 was mainly due to the weaker number of transactions for the sale and purchase of the plots of land as there was an apparent shortage of the availability of land plots in Doha.
The report also noted that there was a very high demand for plots of land throughout the year leading to the sharp increase in the prices of land plots in Doha.
The Ezdan report highlighted that Qatari real estate market largely remained resilient against the impact of the dwindling energy prices.
