Costacoffee

Hello there,Happy new year 2016.
I would like to have your views on one of the new year resolutions.
This is about BUYING an apartment in Doha.
In an attempt to surviving the surge in accommodation prices in Doha and save on the money being thrown from the window each month.
Rent prices have seen tremendous increase and will likely still increase by at least 10-20% yearly...

Plan is to buy an apartment (1-2) bedrooms apartment.
Budget is 1.4m - 2m QAR
Location - In one of the few allowed areas for expats as Pearl and Lusail.
Any advice, opitions, throughts, experiences, Cons / Pros Welcome!
Thanks in advance

OriginalSunshine

My immediate reaction would be wtf?

Unless you are Qatari, or have long term ability to live in Qatar independent of the whims of an employer to let you in or out of the country, I would suggest it's a really bad idea to tie up your capital in this way. What would you do if you are thrown out after 3 months? Would you recoup your capital if forced to sell via proxy (as you are not allowed back in)?

Millhouse

Spending the money on Costa Coffees would be a more sensible investment.

soukie

Wise advice from OriginalSunshine and Millhouse

I wouldn't even buy a car in Qatar.

co durham boy

The biggest financial crash ever to hit these guys is coming hard & fast and you're thinking about buying property which will be worth nowt , it's actually worth nowt now.

Save your money and buy 20 in Hartlepool and rent them outvote smackheads

Meow

"What goes up, must come down" as the song says, especially in immature markets.

DXBtoDOH

Buy two up two down and cram 20 migrants into each one.

co durham boy

The locals would burn it down , remember they hung a monkey because they thought it was a spy. Strange place where witchcraft is strong !

UKCityGent

You cant do that unfortunetly now HMO - too many rules and the landlord is liable to make sure the migrants are legal - otherwise id put another 20 in a garden shed (a friend actually did rent out his garden shed !!)

co durham boy

You can do it and it's endemic all across the UK . London is worse , sub division of property is a major problem for local authorities and they haven't got a clue how to handle it .

It's what drives up the market , no one can afford the prices of most rentals in London but you can if you're sub letting and sub letting in cash with no questions is the way you do it .

Landlords from the same cut of cloth are making themselves millionaires , they're actually bringing them in to fill the properties .

People farming , it's what makes the landed gentry rich

mikelincs

It's not always the landlords though, there is a current Ch5 programme, 'Can't Pay, We'll Take it Away' about crown court baliffs, and the number of places they have to evict people from when they are in serious arrears with the rnet. When they gain access its not that unusual to find 8 or 9 beds in a two bedroom house or flat, where the tenants have been subletting and making a lot of money, but still not paying the rent or ignoring eviction notices, often in London.
What makes some of that programme watchable is when they go to places like Toshiba head offices to reclaim unpaid debts of a few thousand pounds, and they tell them if they don't pay there and then they will remove goods to sell to cover the costs. I mean multinationals like that having the baliffs sent in over a debt of say £3,000. It's all down to poor accounting etc, where they've 'forgotten' to pay the invoice.

scot47

Back to the OP. Buying an apartment in Qatar would not be a smart move. It might be for a Qatari but not for a foreigner.

Johnnyboy11

Lots of good advice given here. Don't do it.

Grossly overpriced
Volatile property market
Major oversupply of property
Crap build quality
Lacking local amenities and traffic chaos
Tenuous property rights
Sponsor still required to work
Biased legal system
High utility and other charges

I know of only one expat who bought an apartment in the Pearl, about 10 years ago, and has regretted it since.

Paying the obscene rent for accommodation is the best of two evils. See it as another way of the Government extracting income tax from you.