Oman- Property transactions decline RO72.1mn collected as fees

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- The overall activity in the real estate market was dull in the first ten months of 2018, compared to the same period last year, with the total value of transactions till the end of October declining to RO2.2bn from RO2.3bn for the same period of 2017.

As per the National Centre for Statistics and information (NCSI)figures, the sultanate's government collected RO72.1mn as real estate transaction fees during the January-October period this year, 6.8 per cent higher compared to the same period of last year.

Of the total traded value till the end of October, RO802.2mn worth transactions were sales contracts, while RO1.4bn transactions were mortgage deals.

As many as 49,586 sales contracts were executed in the ten-month period of 2018. Some 50,616 contracts were recorded during the same period of 2017.

However, the total number of mortgage contracts fell by 15.2 per cent to reach 13,815 against 16,298 contracts in 2017.

NCSI data reveal a significant fall in traded value of exchange (barter) contracts by 25.9 per cent during the January-October 2018 period to RO14mn, as against RO18.9mn posted last year over the comparable period.

The number of barter contracts witnessed a rise of 54.9 per cent to 1,287, compared to 831 in 2017.

As for plots allotted till the end of October 2018, the number stood at 187,735, which is a decline of 0.4 per cent from the end of October 2017, when 188,518 plots were allotted. The number of plots allocated to GCC citizens surged by 17.1 per cent to reach 1,221 compared to 1,043 during the same period last year, the NCSI figures showed.

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