Real estate deals in January fall by 30.6%

Muscat: The total value of property transactions in the Sultanate till the end of January 2020 fell by 30.6 per cent to reach OMR167.3 million from OMR241 million for the same period of 2019, as indicated by the preliminary statistics issued by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The number of plots issued until the end of January 2020 was 17,494, which is a decline of 14.7 per cent from the end of January 2019, when 20,511 plots were issued.
Of the total traded value until the end of January 2020, OMR60.1 million worth transactions were sales contracts, while OMR103.8 million transactions were mortgage deals.
As many as 4,595 sales contracts were executed in January 2020 against 5,599 contracts during the same period of 2019. However, the total number of mortgage contracts fell by 9.8 per cent to reach 1,087 contracts against 1,205 contracts in 2019.
The Sultanate’s government collected OMR6.6 million as real estate transaction fees until the end of January 2020, which is a drop of 19.2 per cent compared to the same period of 2019.
NCSI data reveal a significant fall in the traded value of exchange (barter) contracts by 14.7 per cent during January 2020 period to OMR3.4 million, as against OMR3.9 million posted in the comparable period of 2019.
The number of barter contracts witnessed a rise of 0.6 per cent to a total of 156, compared to 155 contracts in 2019.
The number of plots allocated to GCC citizens fell by 15.3 per cent to reach 61 plots compared to 72 plots during the same period of 2019, the data showed.