DOHA: The owners of many newly-constructed apartment buildings have begun giving away flats on relatively lower rents, but a large number of these buildings still remain unoccupied. According to real state market sources, owners unwilling to compromise on rents have stuck to their guns for long, so they would prefer to wait a bit longer. “I think most of the owners of new apartment buildings are waiting for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid and it is only after that that they might decide what is to be done with their properties,” said a market source. There are, though, some buildings whose owners have lowered rents, especially for companies that wanted several residential units in one go. For individual tenants, getting into a new building on his terms could still be difficult. Real estate market sources say that usually during Ramadan the property market becomes dull and there is hardly any demand, but they added that this Ramadan they hoped for some activity. “This Ramadan, we hope some enquiries might come our way because people are becoming increasingly aware that it is the right time to hunt for a rented home in the holy month,” said a market source. An official of a real estate agency, while confirming this, said he had already lined up a few meetings with prospective customers today, the first day of Ramadan. Housing supplies far exceed demand with more units coming on the market with each passing day. Although, if sources are to be believed, the property market had been improving a bit until the summer vacations started. “There were improvements this year as compared to last summer,” said another market source, adding: “We hope that after the vacations are over the improvement would continue, although the situation should be clearer by the year-end,” said another source. He said that more enquiries were coming up yet the rents were down due to supplies being excessive and the psychological factor. “People know that there are more supplies so they insist on reducing the rent,” said the source. Also, a lot of apartments in older buildings are coming on the rental market, which led the rents to ease further last month, said sources. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/123095-owners-of-new-buildings-lower-rents.html

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