At Kuwait, the real estate transaction slumped to 31.5% month-on-month (MoM) in October 2019 to stand at KWD 230 million. As the number of trading days marginally declined over the month, it is signalling below-average sales during the year. Thus, the number of real estate transactions dropped by 25% in October when compared to September, with the number of transactions totalling 450. As per the reports of the National Bank of Kuwait, real estate sales in October were down 31% month on month and down 26% year on year. On the other hand, the investment sector sales rose 17% compared to September and 9% from October 2018 to KD107m ($351.7m), buoyed by some large building transactions and coupled with a four percent increase in building prices.
Additionally, the bank also expects a minor bearish trend in this sector until there is a decline in an imbalance between softer demand and oversupply. However, there is good reason to believe that a significantly huge number of vacant apartments have yet to be absorbed into the market. Overall, there was no improvement in the commercial sector with sales falling to just KD400,000 ($1.3m), below the 2019 monthly average of KD52m ($171m). There was a 79% drop in transactions and the average transaction size was down to KD47,000 ($154,500). Sales value in the trade sector showed a major drop, largely centring on the transactions of small retail shops which were significantly down.a