A number of towers in the West Bay area, called Doha’s Manhattan, are lying vacant as their owners insist on leasing them out to single tenants in order to ensure hassle-free and long-term income.
This points to a new trend emerging in Qatar’s booming property market as real estate investors seem to be keen on renting out multistorey commercial buildings, especially towers, to single tenants rather than several of them.
Owner-investors believe leasing out commercial space to a single tenant guarantees long-term income, in addition to helping cut down management costs.
According to leading property consultants, there are quite a number of towers in the West Bay waiting for single tenants. Renting out a 30-40 storey building to several tenants means the owner has to spend a lot of money to manage the building.
When a tower is rented out to multiple entities the chances of several floors lying vacant for long are high, owners fear.
They believe it is difficult to find a tenant for a vacant floor if the other floors are occupied. “There is a risk of losing the annual income 40 to 50 percent in the event of renting out a tower to multiple tenants,” said Jed Wolfe, Managing Director of Asteco Qatar.
“A single tenant means that you will get a guaranteed income for long. And you need not bother about looking for new tenants in the event the existing ones go. Blue chip companies seldom like to move into a tower where other floors are occupied by other companies”, he said.
According to investors, single tenants are more flexible and willing to go for long-term relationships with property owners. The mutual trust and the guarantee of long-term income tend to boost the business confidence of both, the tenants and the property owners.
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