Real estate deals in Oman rise

Business Saturday 22/February/2020 16:35 PM
By: Times News Service
Real estate deals in Oman rise

Muscat: The total value of property transactions in Oman until the end of December 2019 increased by 4.9 per cent to reach OMR2.77 billion from OMR2.64 billion for the same period of 2018, as indicated by the preliminary statistics issued by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The number of title-deeds issued until the end of December 2019 stood at 211,191 which is a decline of 5.5 per cent from the end of December 2018, when 223,492 title-deeds were issued. Of the total traded value until the end of December 2019, OMR911.2 million worth transactions were sale contracts while OMR1.83 billion transactions were mortgage deals.
As many as 56,887 sales contracts were executed until the end of December 2019 against 58,828 contracts during the same period of 2018. However, the total number of mortgage contracts fell by 0.1 per cent to reach 16,017 contracts against 16,027 contracts in 2018.
The Sultanate’s government collected OMR82.3 million as real estate transaction fees until the end of December 2019, which is a drop by 2 per cent compared to the same period of 2018. NCSI data reveal a significant rise in the traded value of exchange (barter) contracts by 45.4 per cent at the end of December 2019 period to OMR23.3 million, as against OMR16 million posted in the comparable period of 2018.
The number of barter contracts witnessed a rise of 7.5 per cent to a total of 1,641 compared to 1,527 contracts in 2018. The number of plots allocated to GCC citizens fell by 37.3 per cent to reach 875 plots compared to 1,396 plots during the same period of 2018, the data showed.