There are many takers for real estate in Oman, as indicated by the total value of property deals and the number of titles and registrations reported in March. Oman witnessed real estate transactions worth more than RO279mn, 10,655 land and property registrations, and the issue of 21,894 titles in March.
The Ministry of Housing has also distributed more than RO60mn under its housing aid programme, held from January 2011 to March 2012. According to Abdullah bin Salem al Mukhaini, secretary of land registry, Ministry of Housing, 10,655 new registrations were reported in Oman during March 2011.
These registrations included 8,906 residential properties, 211 residential-cum-commercial lands, 1,053 agricultural properties, and 58 industrial plots. Since 70 per cent of Oman's population lives in Muscat, the most number of registrations, (1,217 deals) were recorded in the capital region, followed by Batinah North (1013), Dakhliyah (759), Batinah South (638), Sharqiyah North (491) Dhofar (421), Sharqiyah South (362), Buraimi (279), Musandam (53) and Al Wusta (50), Mukhaini said. Last month also saw many GCC nationals buying plots in Oman, with a total of 577 deals.
Kuwaiti nationals topped the list, followed by nationals from UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. According to Mukhaini, GCC nationals made the maximum investments in the Sharqiyah region and registered 143 deals in 2012. The Ministry of Housing received 3,174 applications from 11 regions in the country from January 2011 to March 2012. The largest number of applications was from Sharqiyah North.
© Muscat Daily 2012
