KUWAIT: Nearly 50,000 flats are currently empty in the key residential areas across Kuwait as more and more expatriates move out of the country, some in search of greener pastures while others owing to job losses triggered by the Kuwaitiszation policy, said a report.

Kuwait's nationalisation policy, which is aimed at terminating the contracts of expatriates in the public sector and increasing the charges for services offered to them, and the announcement about a new tax system, have all contributed to the crisis, reported Arab Times, citing leading industry experts.

Kuwait Real Estate Association Secretary Qais Al Ghanem pointed out that the recent pressures imposed on expatriates resulted in a large number of vacant flats especially in the investment residential sector.

"We expect the trend of expatriates’ departure to rise during June as they are either searching for better opportunities in other destinations or choosing to return to their countries of origin," stated Al Ghanem.
 
A severe crisis is brewing in Kuwait's real estate sector as a total of 49,130 flats remain vacant in the country and added to that another 26,466 housing units (currently under construction) will soon enter the property market, said officials of the Kuwait Real Estate Union.

The rate of expatriates’ population growth, which reached 4.8 per cent over the past five years, dropped by two per cent in 2017 and will fall by 1.5 percent in the coming five years, they stated.

The union officials warned that the Kuwait's real estate sector was under tremendous pressure as more than 75,000 units need to be 'absorbed' by the domestic property market over the next 4 to 5 years, reported state news agency Kuna, citing experts.

"The proportion of occupied property units amounted in the current year to 86.8 per cent, dropping by 8.2 per cent compared to the past five years – which had soared to 95 per cent," revealed Ahmad Al Dewaihees, the union’s secretary general.

Average monthly rent dropped from KD278.9 ($920.3) to KD242 ($798.6), registering a 13.2 per cent decline, said Dewaihees, citing a report prepared by the union (Al-Murshed 2017).

The report includes a survey covering a sample of 162,576 apartments in 5,695 plots in 19 locations. It studied 875 plots, including 26,466 under-construction residential units in all districts, in addition to 13,535 completed ones, where the proportion of new units amounted to 6.6 per cent of the plots, it added.

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