(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Mohammed Osman
DOHA: The monthly statistics on building permits issued by municipalities last month show Al Rayyan Municipality (including Shihaniya) has topped the municipalities, acquiring 30 percent of total permits.
The number of permits issued in Al Rayyan were 199, while Doha Municipality came second with 187 permits (28 percent).
Khalifa Al Maslamani, a leading real estate expert, said the difference is relative and mostly because of the nature of the two municipalities. Doha is a business centre, where over 60 percent of real estates are used for business and administrative purposes. This includes towers where the prices are in billions, while building permits for business in Al Rayyan are not over 10-15 percent of the buildings and the value is in millions, not billions, he explained.
Doha has bigger spaces of markets, malls, business and administrative buildings, while Rayyan is more residential buildings from here comes the differences in terms of number of permits not value, he added.
Generally speaking business development is currently calm and there is low demand and supplies in Doha municipality regarding sale and rent and other related commercial activities, said Al Maslamani.
Al Wakrah Municipality ranked in the third position with 94 permits (14 percent), municipality of Al Daayen with 89 permits, i.e. 14 percent. The rest of the municipalities were as follows : Al Khor 43 permits (7 percent), Umm Salal 38 permits (6 percent), and finally Al Shamal 9 permits (1 percent).
Building permits data is published by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. The data has particular importance as it is considered an indicator for the performance of the construction sector in the country.
In terms of type (buildings, additions, fencing) data indicates that the new building permits (residential and non-residential) constitutes 54 percent (356 permits) of the total building permits issued during the month of May 2016, while the percentage of additions permits constituted 43 percent (281 permits), and finally fencing permits with 3 percent (22 permits).
Villas’ permits topped the new residential buildings, accounting for 63 percent (188 permits) of all new residential buildings permits, followed by dwellings of housing loans by 26 percent (78 permits) and apartments buildings by 9 percent (28 permits).
Industrial buildings e.g. workshops and factories are found to be in the forefront of non-residential buildings permits with 36 percent (20 permits), followed by commercial buildings with 23 percent (13), followed by mosques with 21 percent (12), and government buildings with 18 percent (10 permits).
Compared with the number of permits issued in May with the previous month, there was an increase of 16 percent, noted in the municipalities of Doha (32 percent), Rayyan (16 percent), Al Daayen (30 percent). and a decrease in the municipalities of Wakrah (3 percent), Umm Salal (10 percent), Al Khor (23 percent) and Al Shamal (10 percent).The Peninsula