Decline in real estate deals in Oman

Muscat: The total value of property transactions in the Sultanate till the end of May 2019 dropped by 13.9 per cent to reach OMR1.09 billion from OMR1.26 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 properties issued till the end of May 2019 was 94,171, which is a decline of 8.8 per cent from the end of May 2018, when 103,211 properties were issued.
Of the total traded value till the end of May 2019, OMR418.9 million worth transactions were sales contracts, while OMR662.4 million transactions were mortgage deals.
As many as 25,322 sales contracts were executed in May 2019 against 26,894 contracts during the same period of 2018. However, the total number of mortgage contracts fell by 7.4 per cent to reach 6,875 contracts against 7,423 contracts in 2018.
The Sultanate’s government collected OMR38.1 million as real estate transaction fees till the end of May 2019, which is a drop by 5.8 per cent compared to the same period of 2018. NCSI data reveal a big rise in traded value of exchange (barter) contracts by 48.7 per cent during the May 2019 period to OMR10 million, as against OMR 6.7 million posted in the comparable period of 2018.
The number of barter contracts witnessed a rise of 5.9 per cent to a total of 733, compared to 692 contracts in 2018.
The number of properties allocated to GCC citizens fell by 41.6 per cent to reach 433 properties compared to 742 properties during the same period of 2018, the data showed.