Bahrain’s real estate transaction volumes and economic growth projections continue to improve despite global challenges

Bahrain’s real estate transaction volumes and economic growth projections continue to improve despite global challenges

Market Overview

• Bahrain has seen its fastest GDP growth rate in over a decade, reaching 6.9% Y/Y to Q2 2022

and forecast at 5.9% for 2022 as a whole, according to Oxford Economics. This has been driven

by the increase in VAT from 5% to 10%, at the start of the year, and strong growth in the

manufacturing, transport & communication sectors. However, Bahrain has also seen its highest

rates of inflation since 2016, reaching 4.0% in August after averaging at 3.4% in H1.

• The number of real estate transactions in Q3 totalled 5,482, which signifies a marginal

decrease from Q1 (Figure 1). Despite this, transactions in August totalled 2,431, making it the

second most successful month since 2018.

• The IEA 2022 Economic Freedom Report placed Bahrain 39th out of 165 countries, making it the

only GCC and Middle Eastern nation to fall into the ‘Most Free’ quartile. Bahrain scored

particularly highly in the ‘Sound Money’ and ‘Freedom to Trade Internationally’ categories, but

fell behind in terms of its ‘Legal System and Property Rights’.

• Bahrain ranked 184th out of 193 countries in the World Risk Index, making it one of the top ten

safest countries in the world in terms of disaster preparedness and digitalisation.

Bahrain Hospitality

Data from the Information &