Real estate deals rise by 45 per cent — housing developers

AMMAN — The volume of trade in the real estate sector has increased by around 45 per cent since the end of October when compared with the same period of last year, the Jordan Housing Developers Association (JHDA) said on Saturday.

"The government's executive bundles and incentives caused a significant increase in the number of sales of flats and land plots," JHDA President Zuhair Omari said.

Starting from the announcement of the government's economic incentive programme up until two weeks ago, the number of registered lands bundles reached 700, he noted.

He added: "Under the law, real-estate companies are not allowed to trade land, but they purchase them for construction. That means there will be new buildings, housing projects and more jobs to stimulate the economy, indicating a positive change in the future."

During the announcement of the first government executive bundle at the end of October, then-Finance Minister Ezzeddine Kanakrieh said the government decided to exempt real estate owners from registration and transfer fees by 50 per cent until the end of 2019.

However, Omari said that considering the positive outcomes, "we hope the government will continue providing these incentives for the next two years to maintain the positive indicators."

The JHDA president also called for lowering interest rates on real estate loans, which he said is the "main reason" for regression in the sector, and said that lowering the rates, combined with the incentives, "would guarantee even better results". 

In September, prior to the government's announcement of the four-package economic incentive programme, Omari warned of a rise in haphazard illegal construction resulting from the public’s low purchasing power and plummeting apartment sales.

At the time, he said the sector had been witnessing a steep regression since 2015, citing the drop in Jordanians’ purchasing power due to high interest rates on real estate loans and high living costs.

However, at present, with the government's packages aiming to stimulate the economy, Omari is hopeful that the real-estate sector will thrive in 2020.