In a sign of growing economic momentum, real estate lending by banks increased by about 36% in Qatar in one year up to July, though housing and rental costs have remained “largely flat” in that month, a new study has shown.
In its latest “Mena real estate round up”, Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) said real estate lending in Qatar showed a 0.8% increase in July compared with June.
Recently, QNB said loan portfolio expansion was strong in Qatar in the first half of this year, where loans surged 39.7% on the back of a 55.9% increase at QNB, which was the most rapid for any bank in the region.
QNB has the largest loan book in the region, according to a study.
Housing and rental costs in the country showed only a marginal monthly increase of 0.4% in Qatar in July even as these remained largely flat in the region in July compared with the previous month.
No changes were recorded in Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, though a marginal increase was also seen in Saudi Arabia (+0.2%) and marginal decline in Egypt (-0.4%).
However, compared to a year ago, housing costs were higher in Saudi Arabia (+8.3%), Kuwait (+1.5%) and Egypt (+6.7%) in July.
Real estate credit trends in Kuwait remained flat compared to June, but moved up 4.1% compared with a year ago. Further, the number of mortgages in Dubai declined slightly from a year ago, but a jump of 82.6% was seen in value of mortgages disbursed. Compared to June, the number of mortgages and value disbursed were both down at -38.8% and -42.1% respectively.
Markaz said real estate transactions in key Mena markets lost momentum towards July end due to “seasonal slowdown and the onset of Ramadan”.
However, transaction trends for the month as a whole for all reported markets were moving up, driven mainly by the continued upward trends reported in Jordan. The indexed number of transactions moved up 7.9% from June, while the value transacted increased 16.8% over the same period.
Compared to a year ago, declines were not as extensive, as number of transactions was lower by 0.5% and a value transacted down by 7.7%.
On a year-on-year basis, transaction indices were driven down mainly due to the 53.2% lower transaction activity in Saudi Arabia, while activity levels in Dubai, Kuwait and Jordan remained higher than their past year levels.
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