Housing developers upbeat over August sales ‘buoyed by gov’t incentives’

AMMAN – Sales of residential apartments jumped sharply in August as government incentives spurred homebuyers' spending, helping the sector emerge from a yearlong slowdown.

Jordan Housing Developers Association (JHDA) President Kamal Awamleh attributed the rise in demand for housing units to the government's package of incentives announced late in July to stimulate the real estate sector by exempting buyers from registration fees for the first 150 square metres (sq.m.) of apartments sized 180sq.m. or less.

For any apartment that exceeds 180sq.m. buyers pay the registration fees without exemptions, according to the decision announced by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour at a press conference.

The incentives will be valid until the end of this year.

When comparing sales of housing units recorded last month with the months before, sales of residential apartments in August of this year went up by nearly 70 per cent to 5,512 units, while previously sales ranged between 3,000 and 3,200 apartments per month. 

The incentives were the main driver of growth in sales, which is expected to continue until the end of the year, Awamleh told The Jordan Times Wednesday, indicating that Jordanian expatriates in the Gulf region bought thousands of residential units during the summer season. 

Awamleh urged the government to extend the incentives period for at least three years to encourage developers to build more housing projects, adding the sector contributes to the economic activity of some 40 other sectors.

During the first six months of 2015, trading in the real estate sector saw an 11 per cent drop to JD3.42 billion from JD3.84 billion recorded during the same period of 2014.

The number of apartments sold in the June-August period was 11,755, according to Department of Land and Survey (DLS) figures, representing around 44.5 per cent of overall sales recorded during the first eight months of this year, which reached 26,655 units. 

A report issued by DLS Wednesday indicated that real estate trading in the first eight months of 2015 dropped 7 per cent to JD4.7 billion compared with around JD5.1 billion in the same period of last year. 

But Awamleh expected the property market to recover by the end of the year as it would be able to make up for the slowdown recorded in the first six months. 

As real estate trading last year registered a record JD7.76 billion, the JHDA president said trading is expected to be lower by around JD1 billion this year. 

“If there were no incentives, trading this year would have been much lower,” he added.