MUSCAT: The Sultanate witnessed a 36.8 per cent fall in the traded value of real estate properties in January 2017 at OMR235.1 million, compared to the same period in 2016. Also, the number of contracts fell by 32.8 per cent to 5,582 in January, compared to 8,308 contracts for the same period in 2016, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total value of the 68,145 real estate transactions in 2016 stood at OMR6,622.4 million. The government authorities collected some OMR6.8 million by way of fees for these sales deeds in January this year, against OMR5.7 million collected in the same period last year.
The NCSI report said that the value of the Sultanate’s mortgage contracts dropped by 49.7 per cent to OMR126.4 million, from OMR251.3 million during the same period. Also, the number of mortgage contracts fell by 20.9 per cent to 1,726, against OMR2,181 in January 2016.
