DOHA: Speculators continue to dominate the real estate market, pushing the prices up, a property expert said as the value of real estate transactions crossed QR1bn-mark during November 2-6.
Transactions totalled 129 in the week and gross value was slightly more than QR1.047bn, details released by the Ministry of Justice yesterday showed.
Among the top deals was for a tower in the Pearl-Qatar sold for QR446.71m ($122.67m), the rate per sqm being QR78,110 ($2,145).
The area of the tower was 5,719 sqm. Most other properties sold were small plots of land for residential use. The area of the plots on average varied from 350 to 400 sqm to 2,000 sqm.
The smallest plot of land — 122sqm — in Old Airport area sold for QR787,000, the per sqm rate being QR6,451.
Another plot of an area of 268 sq meters in Madinat Khalifa South was sold for QR6.5m (per sq meter rate being QR24,253). The plots and properties sold in the week were in almost all areas of the country.
Contacted for comment, real estate expert Ahmed Al Oruqui said speculators were still active in Qatar’s property market and were single-handedly responsible for the escalating prices.
The other reason of property rates going up was that supplies are restricted, he told this newspaper. “The third factor is that the same pieces of real estate are being sold and bought by the same buyers and sellers week after week,” said Al Oruqui.
The Peninsula
