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Demand still drives rents up in Qatar
Real estate news By Barbara Bibbo
September 26, 2007, 23:33
Doha: Industry experts said yesterday that Government measures to help stabilise rents in Qatar will take a take few years to show results. Yousuf Hussain Kamal, Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Economy and Commerce, told a public meeting earlier this week that legislation may be enforced soon to better regulate rents and control galloping inflation in the booming Gulf country.
With demand for units outstripping supply, shortage of building materials and growing speculation over property prices, the majority of tenants pay two-thirds of their monthly income for rent, many observers say.
As a result, they added, many expatriates in the middle and low income classes are sending their families home and sharing property with other tenants. "The tenants in the middle and low-income classes are those who suffer most and they are the majority of the population. No one in the real estate sector is properly addressing the growing demand for cheaper units," said Wissam Al Solh, a Qatar-based businessman in the real estate sector.
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