The world’s biggest and the most populated country in the middle-east is Qatar. Home to over a million residents, the majority population being expats, it is one of the most high-spirited places to live. Qatar is one of the safest places to reside, which encourage more people to move into Doha and other neighbouring cities every year. Most residents plan to settle here and invest in a property here. The overall operation might seem a bit daunting though has become easier to keep track of the buying activity with real estate agents in Qatar guiding the buyers throughout the process. The property market in the country has faced its highs and lows over the years and has surprisingly bounced back stronger and functioning exceptionally well at the moment.
PANDEMIC EFFECT ON THE HOUSING MARKET
Qatar is very popular for the overshadowing expat population, who form about 75% of the total estimate. The economic stature of the country is entirely dependent on developing employment opportunities and businesses. The high GDP generated through multiple industries is the primary contributing factor for the growth in the real estate sector over the years. However, the pandemic outbreak in 2019 had a significant impact on the real estate business in many parts of the world. Most of the residential and commercial projects in the pipeline were forced to come to a halt or cancelled altogether. Not many properties were sold, and the number of new builds was relatively low in that period.
GROWTH IN PROPERTY MARKET 2020 – 2021
Compared to the previous years, the real estate transaction levels dropped by 26% in 2020. Despite adding over 700 villas and 2250 apartments, the business faced a dull phase. Besides this downside, the asking price of apartments for rent in Qatar decreased by 2.6%. The property market slowly picked up when the economy started improving and the employment opportunities stabilised. Residential homes were in high demand, and this market trend continued progressively into the next year- 2021. Over 4800 housing units were built successfully across the country. Cities like Lusail, The Pearl, West Bay Lagoon and other prominent places hold the highest demand for studio flats and villas, and the estimated count would be 15000 by the end of 2022.
CURRENT TRENDS AND AVAILABILITY
Even with continuous restocking of brand new housing units in Qatar, the skyrocketing demand from local and expat investors slowly exhausted the Villas for Rent in Qatar. With over 74 billion riyals allocated for residential and other types of infrastructure in Qatar, housing units are getting sold in a flash. The 2022 FIFA World Cup is one major event bringing in an estimated 1.5 million visitors who will need appropriate living arrangements throughout the event. With the current lack of accommodations, it would be challenging to have a massive number of spectators, if not planned properly. Keeping in mind this prominent world Cup, the government has scheduled to build over 15000 units comprising villas, hotels, apartments, private homes and more.
BEFORE AND DURING THE WORLD CUP ’22
The housing crisis is a common challenge for people in many countries. The Qatari government has set a target of building more houses and other types of accommodations in a short while. The demand and supply rates are now sailing together, and the gross yields have risen by 5.8%, where apartments are the primary contributors. Every year, new builds are constructed mainly in the central parts of Doha and other cities of Qatar to balance the demand-supply crunch. Building more than 15000 units this year is luckily coinciding with the most important global event- FIFA World Cup. If the construction gets over in the stated period, more than 90000 rooms will be available for bookings at the time of this event.
FUTURISTIC APPROACH TOWARDS THE PROPERTY MARKET
The number of spectators will nevertheless not stop at the anticipated 1.5 million. Based on the recent reports, more than 850000 people from different countries will land in Qatar, and they require accommodations throughout their stay. With so many housing units being built this year, it will open doors to more investors across the globe. The property market witnessed over 5000 transactions in 2021 with a collective value of over 25 billion riyals. With the current pace and demand, the housing units built can be rented out to increase the rental yield percentage. The present and future of the property market in Qatar will remain stable with the booking economic conditions in the country and across the globe.
