Qatar property market ‘rebounds after summer lull’
Real estate agency DTZ says residential enquiries are up compared to last year
Qatar’s property market appears to be on the road to recovery following the summer lull and Eid holidays, a real estate company in the country has said.
According to DTZ, there has been a significant increase in enquiries for both residential accommodation and office space over the month to date, as compared to the same time period in 2015.
The number of residential enquiries were up by 23% compared with August 2015, and 17% compared with September 2015, the real estate firm said in a release. The most popular enquiries were for two-bedroom apartments in the QAR9,000 – QAR12,500 segment of the market. This was closely followed by one-bedroom apartments.
There was a strong preference for furnished apartments, according to DTZ.
Furthermore, the most popular search in the villa market was for four-bedroom units within a compound, on an unfurnished basis.
There was also a surge in enquiries for office space, predominately from the private sector, with 250sqm – 500sqm the most searched sizes.
“Whilst we would normally expect a busy September following a relatively long summer season, the volume of enquiries being significantly higher than the same period during 2015 is surprising,” said Edd Brookes, general manager of DTZ. “Whilst there is an element of tenant churn this time of year, it is good to see that a large portion of the residential demand is from expats moving to Qatar for the first time.”
While the prime residential market had shown signs of softening in June 2016, Brookes put that down to seasonal fluctuations, as well as the effects of a number of well-publicised bouts of corporate restructuring.
