Rents in Qatar have fallen by about 17% since the beginning of this year, according to a report published by a regional business website, quoting Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA). While forecasting a further fall in rents in coming months, the report had recorded continuous fall in rents in the months of June and July. Inquiries made in the local real estate circles found steep fall in the rents of both furnished and unfurnished apartments. The rents of a number of two bed-room apartments, advertised for QR6,500 or above a few months ago, have come down by nearly 30%, according to sources in the industry. Sources said brand new two-bed apartments in areas such as Bin Mahmood are available at much lower rates now than what they had been a few months ago. Similarly, inquiries also found that rents for two bed-room flats in some areas as Bin Omran and its neighbourhood have fallen to QR4,500, with real estate firms expecting them to come down further. While there is no perceivable rise in the demand for villa units, instances of customers moving from their old villa accommodations to new units for the same rents have also come to light. There are also reliable reports of tenants vacating flat apartments and moving into villa units as the latter are available for lower rents than what the tenants had been paying at apartments earlier. While corroborating this, an official of a real estate house predicted a further fall in the rents of apartment units. Another report published in a regional business website has forecast massive job losses in the real estate sector in particular in the UAE and Qatar. A real estate professional told the site in the UAE that the residential units would be available at “affordable” levels in less than six months. He said it would not be a surprise if rents declined to the levels of five to six years ago. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=316986&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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