Mubasher: The value of the real estate sale transactions in the GCC, except Bahrain, has declined 30.7% year-on-year to $59.3 billion during the first nine months of 2018, according to a recent report released on Tuesday.

This decline was ascribed to the decrease in the value of similar transactions conducted in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, which went down 36.1% and 33.8% year-on-year from January to September, KAMCO Research said in a report.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti real estate market has bucked the GCC's downward trend, as the value of property transactions soared 34%, the research firm said.

“Office space landlords continued to offer attractive incentives for tenants in order to keep occupancy rates intact, although incremental office space demand continues to remain soft, as employers across the GCC continue to consolidate and optimise manpower,” the report found.

The Kuwait’s office space demand has also eschewed that trend, remaining solid as rents went higher in 2018. 

“Aggregate credit to the real estate sector disbursed by GCC banks at the end of Q3-18 grew 1.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to reach $195.4 billion. Qatari banks were the largest contributors in Q3-18, as $1.39 billion of net incremental credit was disbursed QoQ, followed by Saudi Banks ($0.86 billion),” according to the report.