Qatar hotel occupancy rate falls to 47% in June: Report
Doha – The hotel occupancy rate in Qatar in June was at 47 percent, much lower than the occupancy rate of 63 percent during the same month last year, according to a monthly report issued by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) on Saturday.
The average hotel room rent decreased to QR429 in June this year from QR481 in the same month last year. The average revenue per available room also dropped from QR301 in June last year to QR203 in June this year.
According to the report, the Qatar Exchange also witnessed declining trend in terms of value of shares traded in June this year.
While year-on-year the value of shares traded declined 55.2 percent, there was a fall of 40 percent when compared with the value of shares traded in the previous month.
The Qatar Exchange benchmark index is also in the negative territory with a decline of 19 percent from 12,201 points in June 2015 to 9,885 in June this year.
The total broad money supply (M2) recorded about QR494 billion during June 2016, showing a monthly decrease of 0.71 percent compared to May 2016.
On the other hand, cash equivalents, including deposits increased 0.16 percent to QR684 billion in June this year when compared with the previous month.
The broad money supply, however, recorded a negative year-on-year change of 7.18 percent, while cash equivalent recorded a positive year-on-year change of 6.2 percent.
Providing details of realtly sector in Qatar, the report revealed that the number of building permits issued in the country decreased 18.7 percent from 659 in May to 536 in June this year.
Al Rayyan Municipality saw the largest decline where 59 building permits were issued in June, a 33.7 percent decrease compared to 79 building permits issued in the previous month.
Doha Municipality was the second most affected where issuance of building permits dropped 31 percent from 187 in May to 129 in June this year.
Out of the seven municipalities in Qatar, only Umm Salal witnessed a rise where issuance of building permits rose 13.2 percent in June.
The total number of sold properties in Qatar stood at 350, a decline of 41.9 percent from 602 in the same month last year. The value of sold properties also dropped 55.9 percent in June 2016 when compared to the same month last year.
In the yearly update, the report said that as many as 142,653 residential buildings were completed in 2015. The number of residential-cum-commercial buildings completed in 2015 was 2,757.
