Successful World Cup Bid Helps Qatar real estate market
FIFAs decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has surely increased confidence within the local property market, indicating marked increase in volume of sales and leasing enquiries, although it is too early to assess its impact on real demand and prices, reports Asteco Property Management.
The Regional Director at Doha-based office of Asteco, Jed Wolfe, said that investors in real estate market are likely to observe caution by seeking long-term investment, rather than short-term speculation.
However, The Qatar Report Q42010 by Asteco, revealed that although a gradual rise in demand was recorded following Eid and Ramadan, with tenants taking advantage of competitive rents being offered in different parts of Doha, including The Pearl, overall rents for residential villas in Qatar saw slight decline in Q4 2010. This was especially so for large five-bedroom villas, owing to increased supply.
The initial excitement of winning FIFA World Cup 2022 bid aside, the Q4 2010 report showed a lack-lustre in market performance with subdued activity.
ut, few established areas such as Bin Mahmoud and Al Saad districts continued to show signs of stabilization with rise in average price of single bedroom units.
Recent developments such as The Pearl Qatar, however, witnessed only slight rental decline, indicating that the market has begun to show signs of recovery.
As for residential sales, the market fell between 3 to 6 percent overall, with only few transactions being recorded in Q4 2010.
However, following the announcement of the winning bid to host FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, there has been considerable increase in enquiries from private individuals and property investment firms seeking to purchase apartments, the report said.
Meanwhile, with constant oversupply in the office sector, there have been rental declines of 4percent to 10 percent. The office sales prices remained the same owing to lack of sales transactions during Q4 2010. Only few investors showed interest in purchasing office space, given the current oversupply of office space in the market. Few companies, although have plans of purchasing office space, they are adopting a wait and watch approach, the report said.
