Qatar property prices 'back to 2002/03 levels'

PROPERTY PRICES: Qatar real estate prices have returned to 2002/03 levels, says the Al Waab City CEO. (AFP)

Qatar’s real estate market has seen a correction to return to 2002 and 2003 levels, according to the CEO of Al Waab City, a $3.3bn property development in the country.

Prices in the market had almost hit the bottom and would begin to rise again once that had happened, said Sheikha Hanadi Nasser Bin Khaled al Thani.

At their highest point, real estate prices in the Gulf state were doubling and even quadrupling within a year, she told Arabian Business on the sidelines of the Qatar Global Investment Forum.

One of the reasons for the peak was because the market struggled to keep up with growing demand for property from people moving to the country, said Sheikha Hanadi.

“Now everything is going back to the standards of 2002 and 2003, which is more logical,” she said.

“We are seeing a more realistic approach in prices and projects, in everything.  We were overtaken with our exuberance and a lot of projects were not put on the market in the right way, assets were not priced in the right way - now it’s back to basics.”

Al Waab City, which is being built by Dubai-based Arabtec Construction, was still on schedule for completion next year, she said.

She refused to say how much had been sold of the development, which includes mixed-use residential units and low-rise office spaces in Doha covering an area of 1.25 million sq m.

Al Waab is a unit of family-owned Nasser Bin Khaled Al Thani & Sons Holding Group, of which Sheikha Hanadi is deputy CEO.

Sheikha Hanadi said her investment banking and asset management firm, Amwal, was looking to launch investment funds in Qatar and Gulf markets before the end of 2009.

“I think we will see a lot of opportunities within the financial services including restructuring, corporate finance and investment banking.

“For now we are concentrated on Qatar and the Gulf region, where are expertise and acumen lie.,” said Sheikha Hanadi, who is chairperson of Amwal, which she founded in 1998.

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