Number of planned plots of land declined 8% last year in Oman

Muscat: Number of planned plots of land in the Sultanate in 2015 declined 8 per cent to 49,520, compared with 2014, while issued plots increased 45 per cent to 42,837, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and information (NCSI).
Further, the NCSI bulletin on housing statistics listed the Governorate of Al Wusta as having the largest number of planned plots, at 10,999.
Additionally, the Governorate of North A’Sharqiyah ranked second with 10,752 planned plots, followed by the Governorate of A’Dakhiliyah with 8,005 plots of land. The Governorate of North Al Batinah had 7,471 planned plots, while the Governorate of Dhofar had 3,384 planned plots of land.
The highest decrease in the number of planned plots was recorded in the Governorate of Al Buraimi, which recorded a decline of 91 per cent, reducing the number to 255 last year, from 2,732 planned plots in 2014. The Governorate of South Al Batinah witnessed a decrease of 80 per cent in the number of planned plots during the period, with 2,604 plots last year.
Meanwhile, the number of planned plots of land in the Governorate of Musandam stood at 887,000, while the Governorate of Muscat had 1,843 plots of planned land. The Governorate of A’Dhahirah and Governorate of South A’Sharqiyah had, respectively, 1,520 and 800 pieces of planned land last year.
The number of issued plots registered a 45 per cent growth last year, compared with 2014, which went up to 42,837 plots from 29,636 plots of land granted in the prior year.
The Governorate of South Al Batinah received the largest share of issued lands last year, with 10,214 plots, followed by the Governorate of A’Dakhiliyah with 8,861 plots, and the Governorate of North A’Sharqiyah with 5,021 plots of land issued.
The Governorate of Dhofar registered the highest percentage increase in issued land, at 1,446 per cent, with the number of granted plots reaching 4,482 last year, from just 290 plots in 2014.
The Governorate of Al Wusta witnessed the highest decline in allotted land, at 65 per cent, with numbers falling from 1,688 land plots in 2014 to 594 in 2015.
Musandam
In the Governorate of Musandam, the number of granted plots decreased by 27 per cent, from 180 plots in 2014 to 131 plots in 2015.
The number of plots issued in the Governorate of North Al Batinah stood at 4,071 and the Governorate of South A’Sharqiyah issued 3,353 pieces of land. The Governorate of A’Dhahirah issued 2,935 plots, while the Governorates of Muscat and Al Buraimi issued 2,382 and 793 plots of land, respectively, last year.
Plots developed for residential use formed the largest segment of planned plots, with their numbers reaching 40,589 in 2015 and making up 82 per cent of the total planned plots.
Plots for government use came in second, at 5,276 planned plots, with a share of 10.6 per cent . Plots for commercial use accounted for 3.49 per cent of the total planned plots, at 1,726 plots, while those for residential and commercial use formed 3.39 per cent of the planned plots, at 1,376 plots. As many as 544 plots were designated for industrial use, accounting for 1.3 per cent of the total planned plots, while 9 plots were set aside for agricultural use.
Residential use
The number of plots issued for residential use reached 39,267, marking a share of 91.6 per cent of the total plots issued, followed by 1,931 plots for the government to use (4.5 per cent) and 694 plots for residential-commercial use (1.6 per cent).
Plots granted for commercial and industrial uses numbered 463 and 398, respectively, with a corresponding share of 1.8 per cent and 0.9 per cent of the total plots granted. The number of plots dedicated for agricultural use stood at 84.
The number of registered plots of land in 2015 stood at 52,672, of which 47,652 plots were for residential use. Plots registered for residential commercial use numbered 1,777, while agricultural plots numbered 1,528 plots.
Plots registered for industrial use stood at 728, while plots for government use reached 183.
As many as 804 plots were registered for commercial use.
GCC citizens purchased 2,259 properties in 2015. Among these, Kuwaiti citizens held a 46% share of the plots at 1,042, followed by UAE citizens with a share of 40% or 901 plots. Citizens of Qatar and Bahrain owned 105 and 112 properties, respectively, at nearly 5%, while citizens of Saudi Arabia owned 99 properties.
The largest number of plots owned by GCC nationals was 639 in the Governorate of North Al Batinah, which were mostly residential plots.
On the other hand, the number of households benefiting from housing loans stood at 1,957, with loans exceeding RO 48.44 million last year.
Of note, Oman Housing Bank provided 898 housing loans, worth RO 78.99 million, while the Ministry of Defence issued 731 loans worth over RO 45.50 million. The number of loans provided by Petroleum Development (PDO) in 2015 stood at 429, exceeding RO 26.11 million.

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