6 / 11
6
Mazaya Monthly Real Estate Report -
Week 2 - January 2017
Mortgage rates have remained stable
over the past year. Real challenges have
been the provision of collaterals, rather
than the interest level, as the banking
sector tended to improve funding
conditions while requiring more solid
guarantees due to the prevailing
state of uncertainty and the difficulty
to provide reliable future forecasts.
With regards to the construction
sector, the last year witnessed several
fluctuations as a result of the decline
in government spending levels and the
drop in oil returns. However, there are
real estate projects under construction,
valued at around $ 2.6 trillion in Qatar,
UAE, and Saudi Arabia, despite all the
challenging conditions the sector has
been going through, including the fall in
the number of contracts and projects.
The UAE realty markets were the most
active in the region with regards to
mortgage transactions that remained at a
level of 3%-4%, which shows that interest
rateswerebothattractive for theclientsand
satisfactory for banks, therefore keeping
demand at positive levels despite the
unstable liquidity levels all over the region.
The report noted that the challenges and
lessons learned from 2016 should be
utilised in 2017 and over the years to come
to develop the sector in a way that ensures
it will maintain its competitive investment
edge in local, regional and global levels.