Rising residential rents seen in Qatar during the first quarter of the year reflects the increase in demand for residential property in the country ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in November. And as availability falls further towards the end of the year, residential rents are expected to continue to climb, global real estate advisory firm Cushman and Wakefield has said in its latest Real Estate Market Review Qatar Q1 2022.
The surge in residential property demand is partly due to the Supreme Committee and Legacy reserving accommodation to house fans during the tournament. There has also been strong demand from corporate entities looking to secure much-needed staff accommodation in the build-up to the tournament.
The impact of increased demand on rental levels has been most evident in prime apartments, where rental levels for new leases have increased by 10 percent to 15 percent over the past year, said the report.
“Rental increases have also been evident in villa compounds, albeit not to the same degree, as most compounds have enjoyed high occupancy over the past two years. Recent renewals and new lettings in some of Doha’s compounds have seen rents climb by between 2 percent and 5 percent,” Cushman and Wakefield said.
To date, residential supply has increased by 5.2 percent per annum in Qatar since 2015.
The report added that asking rents for vacant apartments in The Pearl-Qatar now typically range from QR9,000 to QR10,000 per month for a one-bedroom unit to between QR16,000 and QR19,000 per month for a three-bedroom unit. Closer to the city centre, apartments in older buildings in areas such as Bin Mahmoud can be leased from approximately QR5,500 for a one-bedroom apartment and from QR8,500 per month for a three-bedroom apartment. While rents for standard three-bedroom compound villas typically range from QR14,000 to QR16,000 per month, with larger 4 and 5-bedroom villas ranging from QR17,000 to QR21,000 per month.
Cushman and Wakefield estimate that the number of apartments in Qatar reached 230,000 in Q1 2022, while the number of villas was approximately 130,000. This supply will increase significantly throughout 2022 as major new residential projects complete. Ezdan has announced that 4,000 units will be delivered ahead of the World Cup, while 6,800 units at Barwa’s Madinatna in Al Wukair will supply accommodation to World Cup visitors before being released to the wider market in 2023.
According to statistics released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), the number of residential sales transactions in January and February fell by 22 percent on the corresponding months last year.
This followed a year-on-year fall of 30 percent in December, indicating that the pace of residential property sales has slowed after a period of strong growth in 2020 and 2021, Cushman and Wakefield highlighted in its quarterly report.