Property Rents Fall As Health Crisis Grows

Coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted all sectors of the country’s economy, with the real estate sector being among the worst affected.

Shrinking demand, growing vacancies and falling rents from apartments, commercial venues and investment blocs, have led to tumbling revenues for realty property owners and investors. Apartment rents in some areas are reported to have dropped significantly, in some specific areas the rents have fallen by 30 to 50 percent and have been in a free-fall for some weeks now.

Various reasons have been given for this drop, including the decision by the government and many private organisations to terminate the services of expatriates. Some foreigners faced with the tightening economic situation, also decided to send their families back home and surrendered their apartments and moved to single shared accommodations. In addition, many expatriates decided to leave the country in the wake of the coronavirus situation and this also had a negative impact on the real estate sector.

Real estate owners expect the situation to further deteriorate in the coming months, with investors deciding to stop acquiring new plots or constructing new buildings leading to less money circulating in the sector.They added that if the government resorts to implementing new expatriate policies regarding residency visas to control the number of expatriate workers, and amending labor market conditions and demographics, the real estate sector would continue to suffer.

 

SOURCE :  TIMES KUWAIT

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