Qatar’s property market faces reality check ahead of World Cup amid oversupply, spat with Gulf neighbours
- Residential prices are down about 10 per cent from June 2017, when a diplomatic, trade and transport boycott began
Qatar’s Doha Tower, a spiked cylinder that glows orange at night, won an award when finished in 2012 amid a Gulf-wide property boom, but today about half of its 46 floors are empty.
The office tower, now a familiar part of the capital’s high-rise skyline, has run foul of what real estate brokers, bankers and analysts say is an oversupplied Qatar property market ahead of the 2022 World Cup that mirrors a real estate downturn in the wider Gulf region after a drop in oil prices.
Qatar has the added challenge of a diplomatic, trade and transport boycott imposed on the Gulf Arab state by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt over allegations that Doha supports Islamist militants, a charge Qatar denies.
The protracted row has made it tough to lure would-be foreign buyers of residential or commercial space.
Residential prices are down about 10 per cent from June 2017, when the boycott began, and office prices have fallen by a similar rate, according to analysts and economists. Rents are down 20 per cent from three years ago, they say.
“Qatar’s property sector has been one of the main casualties from the blockade that was imposed in mid-2017,” said Jason Tuvey, an economist at Capital Economics.
