Saudi office market activity slowly picking up, says expert
- Date: 27-Apr-2022
- Source: Zawya
- Sector:Economy
- Country:Saudi Arabia
Saudi office market activity slowly picking up, says expert
In Jeddah, despite the lack of activity and with limited availability in the Grade A segment, Grade A rents rose by 10.8% in the first quarter, whereas Grade B rents continued to soften and fell by 4.3%.
Grade A rents in Dammam and Khobar increased by 4.0% and 2.6% respectively, with Grade A rents in both locations now above their pre-pandemic levels.
Residential transaction volumes in Saudi Arabia fell by 23.4% in Q1 2022, compared to a year earlier, while the total value of transactions fell marginally by 1.9%. During this period, the number of transactions totaled 60,336 and the value of transactions reached SR40.41 billion.
In Riyadh, the total number of transactions in Q1 fell by 21.6%, and it also fell in the Damam Metropolitan Area (DMA) by 31.8%. Jeddah on the other hand saw transactions volumes increase by 5.4% in the 12 months to Q1 2022.
Over the same period, average apartment prices in Saudi Arabia have increased by 9.6%, with prices in Riyadh, Khobar, Dammam and Jeddah increasing by 13.2%, 11.3%, 9.6% and 4.5% respectively.
Looking at Saudi Arabia’s hospitality sector, the average occupancy rate in the first quarter increased by 23.4 percentage points compared to a year earlier.
Over the same period,