Appartments in Lusail. Did anybody have experience with buying?

Lusail Visitor's Centre is in full swing now. it is after the Zig Zag building. Go staright after the bridge. you will see it on to your Right side.

where is Lusail visitor's center? is it open yet?

I gave you the photos of Lusail visitors' Centre

Lusail is definately a great investment with technological advancements on par with Tokyo (or so the claim to fame is)

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Good.

Best to go to the horse's mouth (ie The Pearl) for latest information. I am a bulk investment buyer/seller and will buy and sell according to the market. I make quick sales and alternatively will sit on assets indefinitely.

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Love is the answer...

i would appreciate if you could mail me the details of your friends property. personally i may be interested in it. alternately you could mail me his email id / phone number etc. my mail id [email protected]

if he is desparate in selling it, at a right price i am there to pick it up.

Hi Diamondgirl,

Do you work for UDC?...or a Real Estate Agency? I have a friend who bought an apartment at the Pearl an is fricking out. Wants to sell a.s.a.p.

You said that they (UDC) approached you to buy the apartment that you had bought before, to me it is very difficult to beleive it when they have still thousands of apartments to sell.

Could you please give me some advice so I can calm my friend down?.

Give me some positive points to let my friend know that the investment is safe and sound?

Do you think that those buildings are going to be ready for the end of 2009, when they have not even finished the ones that were supossed to be hand over at the biginning of 2008?

Lots of questions. My friend will be very happy to read your comments.

Shukran.

In all honesty given your position you should in the following order: hold; rent; rent; sell after 10 or so year or when you need the money! Congratulations as you will be making a very nice return!

So I will take 15 K and it is a corner one.

Sell or Buy mmmmmmm

I went to see the people at Al Dar who are selling the apartments in Zig Zag and was told that the medium range rental income from the largest 2 bedroom corner apartment with a sea view would be around 16,000 per month. I asked who the market would be and I was told that with the number of new companies coming to Qatar and those in the Financial Center, there simply is not the high quality accomodation available. Also, the price per sq meter of apartments in Zig Zag is going to be raised again by Al Dar before the end of the year. They have only a few left.

I think Zig Zag is an excellent investment as it will not be a building site like the Pearl or Lusail will be for the next few years while each phase is completed. Overall it looks like Zig Zag is the place to buy and quickly get returns from the very high rental income that can currently be demanded in Doha.

It all depends what you want, I guess. Location, location, location as they say. A two bedroomed damp basement apartment in London can easily cost the same as a two bedroomed Pearl apartment 'riveria lifestyle'(not my words!) with uninterruted sea view. Not everyone wants to live in London in the same way as not everyone wants to live in Qatar. They are not comparable.

Many of the properties at The Pearl were bought online by international buyers.

It all depends what you're after and where you want to live. I was approached by The Pearl asking if I wanted to sell a property. There are buyers out there willing to shell out.

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Love is the answer...

the amount of money you have made kinda tells me that they are now over priced now.

The prices are over the top, London money for a small town in the desert, its crazy.

Not pocket money. The bulk of any money I make goes into my charities so a nice tidy sum for them :)_______________________________________________________

Love is the answer...

of money, to us, pocket money for you I a sure hey diamond girl :)

This is why I am thinking of selling, even if I make 300,000 or less it was still better than the bank.

And if the finishing is rubbish it won't be mine.

I anticipate zig zag prices going crazy when all the glass is in and completion looms, it will make a tidy investment for someone.

Aviduser, I would hope that the Zigzag towers are better than Beverley Hills Tower. I found the finishing to be awful. In some of the bathrooms you open the door 3cm and it hits the toilet bowl!

I recently sold an apartment at The Pearl and made a million riyals profit. I bought it early on. The prices have gone up a lot.

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Love is the answer...

So you hold both. But it means that you don't need exit permits any more.

Then if you quit your job you can stay move job do whatever.

This all sounds great I know but I am thinking that if you tell an employer you don't need to be sponsored they may not hire you as they have less control over you.

In my case getting rid of the Exit permit thing is a big bonus.

Zig Zag two beds are up now for about 1.9 million they were 1.6

Rental returns well I don't know, compared to Beverly Hills tower where the average is 18K I am hoping for 14-16K Hopefully.

Loisil is so long away the financing in this country does not make any sense.

Dubai was mentioned earlier, what people fail to mention with that "boom" is flats were offered with very low down payments and then nothing until completion.

This meant people with enough cash could secure hundreds of apartments each they then sold the options on these flats on for a little profit and on the cycle went, with only the person holding the flat at the completion having to pay all the money.

Now many people who ended up with the flats saw that the prices had gone up and up maybe not knowing the history of people effectively "trading" the options like shares as they was no risk for the initial investor.

So the person ends up with the flat and as we all know quality isn't great but its OK and now the person wants to rent it out, well in some areas like Jumeirah they have banned short term lets so that is out. Then he tries to sell finding that there are now over 7,000 flats in his development ALONE !!.

Now the bubble hasn't burst there yet, but see how many of these flats are changing hands now ?. After all why buy second hand when you can buy new !.

Anyway I digress, Here the terms are different you pay in installments over the period from now until completion, but the biggest chunk will be about 3 or 4 months before completion, it varies the point being you will have paid for the flat well before completion not after or at completion, here this saves the speculation but also hinders anyone thinking about long term places like Loisil or the later stages of the Pearl as you will be paying the mortgage before you can rent it.

Now this varies from bank to bank, and terms are different, for example Loisil may say you can put down a deposit now and pay the rest over 4 years, that MIGHT be the case so thats ok. I know the Pearl does not work like that.

So what to tell you. Well if you have Cash then Loisil and later stages of the Pearl all good. Its a tax free cash cow.

But financing, Zig Zag WILL be ready next year, (the lagoona mall 6 Months after that)

So you can buy and be letting within a year.

Cheers

Dear aviduser,

actually the same question as already posted by navi ..."what is the situation for residence permit?" are you getting it straight after the purchasing property or need to wait until it's completion, or even something else. How is the law and rules work here? You advise will be very valid for me, since I'm too new for this place.

Congrats, for your purchase but now I'm totally confused whether it's worthy to look for Lusail or not? All these buildings won't be finished before 2010,so no return from any of the investment upon that time, which makes bank loan too heavy for me.

Any approximate expectation on rental prices for ZigZag? What is the actual prices now for apartments in these towers since you already planning to sell them soon?

Thanks.

dear aviduser, since u have already bought a flat, could u please tell me what were the terms with regards to your residence permit...does it mean that ur sponcership is no longer with your employer...so that u can jump jobs...

I have brought on the zig Zag about 7 months ago, and it has gone up so say 300,000 ryals.

Not bad I hear you say but its paper money till you sell it, and I don't yet see an emerging sales market.

Personally I am torn now, sell when the towers are finished take a quick profit OR

Rent and hold on to it long term.

Right now I am looking at the former, if i can make even 200,000 I am happy as that is more than the bank would have given me.

We shall see, I would recommend zig zag purely because it will be finished first, the Pearl looks good long term and will be desirable.

If al Wabb is cheap then great, get in. Loisil well that really is a lonnnnng way off, at least 5 years in my opinion before it would be worth it. but as a long term bet it could be good and might actually be a better bet than the Pearl as I think that NOW its over priced. Some friends got in when prices were lower, but now is is crazy money and there will be A LOT of towers down there.

You should not compare it to Dubai since prices in dubai when they statred selling 5 years ago were low and there was a big potential for buying, in Doha, a 2 bed appartment is selling for the same price as in dubai now, so even though there will be some upward potential, i dont think its enough to take the risk

second, when i first came here in january i was interested in buying and i went to see the buildings with al sabban towers and they said that out of three towers they still have one to be sold, 6 months later they still had few appartment in that same tower, and now they are also selling the other two which were still not sold, in dubai, a compound of 6000 villa was sold in three days.

third, between the pearl and lusail and waab cilty finishing all together, i dont think that doha is ready to fill all these empty appartments with such an inflation and people are starting to lok for other alternatives than doha

I always tell the truth, even when I lie

Ngourlay makes some very good points that any person thinking of investing should seriously consider.

I've been looking into the number of people coming to Qatar and the supply of property for some time. What is interesting is that demand is likely to continue to outstrip supply for the next 4-5 years. After this point, the Pearl, Lusail and other developments will come fully on stream and then I suspect property prices will come down as there will be enough supply. But on the other hand, Qatar is similar to how Dubai was in the mid 1990s. The potential is really impressive in the long term so real estate in Qatar is a good investment.

As far as Lusail goes - I've consistently heard that it is running behind schedule and will not be completed on time. The first new development which will be ready seems to be the Zig Zag towers in June/July. They still have a couple of apartments left near the top I hear so it might be a better investment than Lusail given delays etc.....

1. If this is to be bought as a long-term investment (over ten years), do you believe there will be sustained growth beyond the current property bubble?

2. What are the threats that exist to current property values in Doha? Can you foresee any international conflicts in the next two years that could wipe out the current property boom?

3. What will be the effect in the medium term (five to ten years) of continued property development on prices?

4. Are there reliable data on how the expatriate population will grow over the next five to ten years? Do you know whether there will be a growth in single people versus families, or vice versa. How will this affect demand for flats versus villas?

5. Is the current property boom caused by real demand, or by an increase in liquidity in Qatar because of high crude prices?

6. What is the proposed lifespan for the development? Is this lifespan supported by structural engineers reports?

7. If buying a property before completion, is it likely that it will be finished to a high standard?

8. If part of the value of the property is based on its views, what guarantees exist that future development will not compromise this value?

9. What guarantees will you receive that the complex will be maintained properly until you wish to sell?

10. What is the likelihood that finance terms will change over the course of your loan?

I am also looking forward to that! Any information?