Doha: Qatar’s real estate sector will attract more long-term investments, helped by government measures and softening in real estate prices. The real estate market will favour buyers over landlords in the coming quarters, according to second quarter 2019 review report released by real estate consulting firm ValuStrat.
The recent law amendment of expanding freehold ownership in residential and commercial sectors will boost the real estate sector, said the report.
“The sales transaction volume accumulated to QR9.5bn in value during the first five months of 2019. Residential capital values have reduced, though the quarterly rate of decline has slowed. On the other hand, the rental market showed a relatively noticeable softening, during the first half of 2019,” Pawel Banach, ValuStrat’s General Manager, Qatar told The Peninsula.
“This trend is expected to persist as oversupply will continue to favour tenants over landlords in the coming quarters. Consumers can take advantage of increasingly competitive prices and flexible payment plans available in Qatar. This coupled with government initiatives such as the introduction of freehold ownership law in the previous quarter could lead to more long-term investments by expatriates in Qatar” he said.
Residential supply reached 294,700 units as of Q2 2019 with the delivery of 1,700 apartments and villas in The Pearl, Lusail, Fereej Bin Mahmoud, Old Ghanim, Fereej Abdul Aziz, Musheireb, Al Dafna, Al Kheesa, Al Wajba and Umm Salal Ali, according to the report.
With the addition of 200,000 square metre (sq m) Gross Leasable Area (GLA) total office stock totalled 4.54 million sq m GLA at end of second quarter (Q2) 2019, said the report.
As of Q2 2019, a total number of 26,890 hotel rooms were available across 129 properties. There were no additions during the second quarter according to ValuStrat research. Till May 2019, visitor arrivals reached 922,132, up by 11 percent compared to the same period last year.
Approximately 600,000 sq m GLA of offices are expected to be added by the end of this year.
Qatar’s organised retail stock reached 1.81 million sq m GLA as of second quarter of 2019, owing to new additions of neighbourhood retail centres in Lusail. Galeries Lafayette (4,350 sq m GLA) announced a soft opening of its flagship store within Katara Cultural Village. Amid competition from newly opened super regional malls, relatively older shopping centres have reduced asking rents by an estimated 5 percent YoY in order to maintain occupancy. Median monthly asking rent among street retail units in Doha stood at QR195 per sq m and outside Doha at QR180 per sq m.
“As per ValuStrat’s research, countrywide occupancy of office space is estimated at 65 percent. With the existing pipeline of supply, vacancies are projected to increase, and landlords may continue to offer even more favourable terms for tenants,” Anum Hasan, Senior Market Research Analyst for ValuStrat, told The Peninsula. An estimated 500,000 sq m GLA of warehousing space is projected to be completed by end of 2019.
