Qatar in the Persian Gulf is the latest Middle Eastern country to develop an exciting real estate market which offers overseas property investors the chance to own some of the most iconic and luxurious properties worldwide.
Oil and natural gas rich Qatar is following in Dubai’s footsteps in its efforts to diversify its economy to maintain its position as one of the fastest growing and richest per-capita countries globally. To this end Qatar represents an incredibly exhilarating opportunity to global real estate investors seeking high end properties offering large yield and growth potential.
Qatar’s oil and gas reserves will sustain the current wealth and success of the nation for at least the next twenty years, but the ruling Al Thani family realise their need to broaden and diversify the country’s economy in order to guarantee and prolong its success indefinitely.
This realisation has led to the promotion of Qatar as an exciting tourist destination offering excellent resort style accommodation and facilities together with fantastic shopping and entertainment options. Qatar is also benefiting financially from the fact that it is the host city for the 2006 Asian Games; these facts together with the expansion of Qatar’s economy has resulted in a substantial construction boom with the country rapidly building new stadiums, roads, hospitals, residential accommodation, retail space and commercial property.
Qatar is also working on growing its banking and financial sectors and developing media, telecommunications and private health care sectors. Many major global corporations such as Ernst & Young, HSBC and IBM have already established bases in Qatar and the population of the country has been swelled substantially by well paid professional expatriates.
This surge in population has resulted in a massive increase in demand for rental accommodation and in the rental yields achievable by all property owners.
The growth in the expatriate population plus the realisation by international investors that property in Qatar can offer owners a low risk very high yield prospect has placed pressure on the government of Qatar to change the property ownership laws that previously restricted foreign nationals to leasehold ownership only. Furthermore real estate developers working on some of Qatar’s most impressive developments such as The Pearl were able to use Dubai as an example to highlight the fact that offering freehold ownership creates a viable real estate sector which further diversifies and underpins the economy.
As a result of these facts in June 2004 the Emir of Qatar amended law 17 of the provisional constitution to allow for foreign freehold ownership of property in The Pearl Qatar, West Bay Lagoon and Al Khor Developments with the provision that this law can be extended to encompass other developments and Qatar’s real estate market sector has already begun to boom.
Levels of predicted growth for property over the medium term are modest but sustainable at 10% per annum. Using the Dubai property market again as an example with which to compare Qatar’s fledgling real estate sector, it too predicted similar levels of growth initially and in the majority of developments in Dubai, property owners have received massively in excess of these amount. Therefore the future for this emerging, high end market is incredibly positive indeed and Qatar’s property sector is already receiving intense levels of foreign direct investment from real estate investors who recognise Qatar as the next Middle Eastern hotspot.
