It’s easy to notice the increasing demand for residential property in Qatar due to the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 that’s to be held in November. Hand in hand with that, there was a noticeable rise in residential rents in the country in the first quarter of the year as well.
In its latest Real Estate Market Review, Qatar Q1 2022, global real estate advisory company Cushman and Wakefield predicted the continuation of the growth of residential rents, as availability is expected to decline even more towards the end of the year.
The Supreme Committee and Legacy have reserved accommodation to house fans that are coming to the tournament, which has, as a result, increased the demand for residential property. In the period leading to the tournament, the corporate groups have also shown a high demand when it comes to securing the much-needed housing for the staff.
According to this report, the impact of the increased demand for rentals has been evident in prime apartments especially, where these new rental levels have climbed by 10% to 15% in the last year.
In their report, Cushman and Wakefield claims that rental increases have been noticeably evident in villa compound, although not to the same extent, as most compounds have had strong occupancy for the past two years. Further in the report, the firm claims that, in certain Doha compounds, rents have risen by 2% to 5% as a result of recent renewals and new lettings.
Since 2015, residential supply has risen by 5.2% per annum in Qatar to date.
Further in the report, Cushman and Wakefield add that monthly asking rates for empty apartments in the Pearl-Qatar currently range anywhere from QR9,000 to QR10,000 for a one-bedroom unit to QR16,000 to QR19,000 for a three-bedroom unit.
When it comes to the apartments in older buildings, in neighborhoods such as Bin Mahmoud, they can be leased for around QR5,500 for a one-bedroom apartment and QR8,500 for a three-bedroom one closer to the city center.
Although conventional three-bedroom compound villas rent for between QR14,000 and QR16,000 monthly, while larger ones go anywhere between QR17,000 and QR21,000.
According to a different report released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), the number of residential sales transactions declined by 22% in January and February compared to the same months in the past year.
All of this came after a 30% year-over-year drop in December, showing that the pace of residential property sales has slowed following the period of the sudden increase in 2020 and 2021, as claimed by Cushman and Wakefield’s quarterly report.