DOHA: Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) quarterly update of 2014 real estate price index confirms that the country’s real estate market prices are on the uptick. QCB’s real estate price index has reached a record 209.4 points in March 2014, up 23.6 percent compared to 169.4 points a year ago.
The index that jumped to 194.5 points in January 2014 from 189.8 points in December 2013, has been steadily growing over the past three months to hit the record 209.4 points in March.
The index reached 2013 peak levels in April and May months with 183.9 and 190.4 points, respectively before dropping to 178.8 points in June. The price measure further slipped to 174.2 points in July and rose marginally in August reaching 176.9 percent.
While the overall index grew by 23.6 percent year-on-year, market reports suggest the land prices have significantly gone up over the past several months.
In March, when the index hit the record high, the real state transaction market witnessed transaction deals worth a total of QR4.19bn, with the land deals dominating the transactions. The month witnessed land transactions worth an approximate QR2.8bn making an estimated 67 percent of overall transactions.
The Ministry of Justice’s data on real estate transaction noted yesterday the transaction between April 6 and 10 recorded a total of QR1.3bn. Last week too, land deals continued to dominate the transactions, accounting for 57 percent of the total deals. Of the total deals closed in Doha Municipality last week, 40.1 percent accounted for land deals worth a total of QR299.3m.
The prices of primary construction materials, except Gabbro Aggregate, is more or less stable over the past two years. The market price put on Ashghal website shows the prices of steel, cements, bitumen and washed sands are stable. Gabbro, which was available for QR64 per tonne in January 2012, jumped to QR80 in January 2013, before easing to QR76 in January 2014. The Peninsula
