DOHA: Planning officials yesterday warned that house rents could soar in 2013 due to rising expatriate population and push the cost of living up.
An idea of the rapid population increase can be had from the fact that in the latter half of this year alone some 130,000 newly-recruited workers have arrived in the country and the trend is likely to remain upward.
It is not surprising, then, that rents have already surged 2.2 percent during the period (in just a few months from May and June to October this year) and the upward curve is to continue, the General Secretariat of Development Planning (GSDP) said yesterday.
It added that for nearly four years, since 2009, rents were low, having climbed down from the shockingly peak levels that were witnessed during 2006 and 2008. “That phase has ended this year,” the GSDP said.
An upward curve is in witness now. As a solace, however, the planning agency pointed out that risks of a repeat of the sharp rent increases of 2006-08 were remote.
Rents are likely to be a major swing factor in forecasts of consumer price inflation for 2013, the agency said, and added that due to the surging rents inflation is now put at 3.5 percent for the year, marginally higher than the projections made in June.
A larger population and the demand it places on rental accommodation and other non-tradable services are likely to add to consumer price inflation in 2013, but risks of a rapid acceleration are low, reiterated the GSDP.
The country’s population was 1.72 million by the middle of this year recording a rise of six percent to a year. Considering the 12-month moving average, the population is once again on a rising trajectory, according to the planning agency.
The rise was so much that by November of this year the population had risen to 1.85 million.
To meet the demands created by an expanding population, service activity expanded in the first half, with most sub-sectors growing at seven to nine percent, the GSDP said in ‘Qatar Economic Outlook 2012-2013’ released yesterday.
The Peninsula
