Qatar’s house prices down 1.69% during the year to Q1 2022

Qatar’s housing market remains weak, with the nationwide real estate price index falling by 1.69% in Q1 2022 from a year earlier, following y-o-y declines of 4.23% in Q4 2021, 0.14% in Q3, 0.83% in Q2, and 3.18% in Q1. But on a quarterly basis, prices increased 3.3%.

Oversupply pulls house prices

The oversupply of residential properties in Qatar associated with the 2022 FIBA World Cup is still pulling down prices. The total number of apartments in Qatar reached 230,000 units in Q1 2022, while the stock of villas increased to 130,000 units, according to Cushman and Wakefield.

This supply is expected to increase significantly this year as major new residential projects will be completed ahead of the 2022 FIBA World Cup in November 2022.

Demand is falling. In the first two months of 2022, residential sales transactions fell by 22% from a year earlier, in sharp contrast to strong growth in 2020 and 2021.

Rents, rental yields: no yields data is available in Qatar.

Recent news.  The Qatari economy is expected to expand by 3.4% this year, a sharp improvement from a 1.5% growth in 2020 and a 3.6% contraction in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Qatar’s economic outlook improved substantially after the Saudis agreed to end their sweeping economic and political blockade against Qatar in January 2021, restoring the air, land and sea links to the emirate that were severed in June 2017.