Real estate transactions in Oman decline to OMR235m in January

Muscat: The Sultanate witnessed a 36.8 per cent fall in the traded value of real estate properties in January 2017 at OMR235.1 million, compared to the same period in 2016. Also, the number of contracts fell by 32.8 per cent to 5,582 in January, compared to 8,308 contracts for the same period in 2016, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total value of the 68,145 real estate transactions in 2016 stood at OMR6,622.4 million.
The government authorities collected some OMR6.8 million by way of fees for these sales deeds in January this year, against OMR5.7 million collected in the same period last year.
The NCSI report said that the value of the Sultanate’s mortgage contracts dropped by 49.7 per cent to OMR126.4 million, from OMR251.3 million during the same period. Also, the number of mortgage contracts fell by 20.9 per cent to 1,726, against OMR2,181 in January 2016.
Housing plots
The Sultanate’s Ministry of Housing allotted 2,143 plots in January 2017 in different governorates, which mainly include housing plots, against OMR3,891 plots in the same period of 2016. This did not include the wilayat of Sohar.
Among different governorates, plot allotments in Al Dakhliyah was the highest, at 906 plots in January 2017, showing a 68.1 per cent growth over the same period of 2016. This was followed by Muscat at 301 plots, Musandam at 229 plots, Al Batinah South at 197 plots, Al Sharqiyah South at 197 plots and Al Sharqiyah North at 155 plots.
The government allotted 32,271 plots in 2016, which included 6,921 in Al Dakhliya, 5,517 in Al Batinah South and 5,001 in Al Sharqiyah North.