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Muscat property: Drastic change in Ruwi, Wadi Kabir, Darsait skylines

by Times News Service | February 25, 2014 , 8 : 18 am GST | 1 comment

A view of residential buildings in Central Business District (CBD) area. Photo - Times of Oman

Muscat: A rise in the price of land in Muscat has helped stoke the rental market, said one of the leading real estate agents in the capital. "Land prices have appreciated by over 20 per cent in the last year and this has pushed up cost for the developers.

Developers will no longer be able to earn an acceptable return unless rents move up," said M. Sudhakar Reddy, chief executive officer, Al Habib & Co. Al Habib manages more than 3,000 units in the Sultanate of Oman.

Country Manager of Eqarat, Salman Jalil, however, said that the rents are holding and except for a minor fall in either older buildings or off-beat locations, there hasn't been much change.

"The scenario for 2014 looks good, too. Rents might be slightly affected by the ease of availability and supply, but as always, good properties command good rents that people are willing to pay," he said, while adding that rents could fall in areas such as Darsait, Muttrah, Ruwi and Wadi Kabir, where it is expected to fall by 10 per cent.

"It could also be less in some old buildings in Al Khuwair, Bausher, Ghubra and Qurum. However, the areas most sought after are Al Khuwair, Azaiba, Bausher, Ghubra and Qurum, where the rents are holding and do not appear to be sliding. Therefore, in these areas in particular, the rents in 2014 should remain good," he said.

According to realtors, the skyline of Ruwi is undergoing a rapid change as older buildings make way for new ones to keep pace with the times.

"More than 25 new buildings are coming up in areas like Rex Road, Darsait and Wadi Kabir which is pushing the rents down," said the property manager of a large property consultant agency. Most of these buildings came up post-1970. Echoing similar feelings, another real estate owner said that another reason which is pushing the rents down in Ruwi is because there is a huge parking issue and much traffic. "Most of the buildings don't have their own parking lot and the area is slowly becoming very crowded where there are huge traffic woes," he said.

He also said that he personally knows a large number of people who had vacated their flats since they didn't have any designated parking places. "But in Al Khuwair and Ghubra, most of the buildings coming have remote controls, community hall, swimming pool and other facilities. So there is a great demand for these buildings," he said.

The scene is, however, different in Ghala, Ghubra and Azaiba where a large number of buildings are coming up. "But you have to remember that in these places, the demand is also more as a large number of companies have shifted their operations from Ruwi to those areas in the last couple of years," another real estate agent opined.
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