DOHA: Qatar Central Bank’s latest Financial Stability Review noted that a major chunk of private sector credit has gone to the real estate sector in 2012. The structure of private sector credit shows that a whopping 33.1 percent of the total credit to the private sector went to the real estate sector. In 2011, the share of real estate sector was 33.5 percent.
The review noted that after bottoming out in 2009, the real estate sector began to climb upward. Improvement in Qatar’s international profile has contributed to a revival in the real estate market. The QCB’s Real Estate Price Index (REPI) data during 2012 grew by around 5.7 percent by end December 2012 over the corresponding period the previous year. The number of sale transactions during the year recorded a growth of around 23 percent. Consistent with the developments in real estate market, the credit provided to the real estate sector increased by around 12 percent by year-on-year end of December. The Central Bank stressed the need for the banking sector to improve its expertise in risk assessment and its management in order to make a judicious assessment of the threshold level of credit that they can extend to real estate sector.
The Peninsula
