Housing sector ‘shows signs of recovery’ — stakeholder

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s housing sector is “clearly showing signs of recovery” from the pandemic crisis, according to the Jordan Housing Developers Association (JHDA).

Anticipating a significant improvement in Jordan’s housing sector, JHDA President Kamal Awamleh said that house and apartment sales are up now. 

The industry recovery comes “especially after the Cabinet reduced the percentage of the fees paid for the division of the apartments”, he told The Jordan Times. 

In 2019, over 33,000 apartments were sold in Jordan, while only 29,000 were sold in 2020. 

In the first 10 months of 2021, more than 33,000 were sold, Awamleh said. “Around 37,000 apartments are expected to be sold by the end of this year,” he added.

The largest increase in apartment construction projects in the Kingdom are centred in Zarqa’s Batrawi area, as well as in Tabarbour and North Amman, as they are considered more affordable parts of the country, Awamleh highlighted.

The JHDA president pointed out that during the first 10 months of 2021, over 4,500 land plots were sold to construction companies and investors, which is a “good sign”.

 “The demand for apartments in particular has risen,” Samer Samir, a contractor, told The Jordan Times on Monday.

The JHDA president also noted that in some areas apartment prices have decreased. 

The apartment price index fell by 3.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2021, according to the latest figures from the Central Bank of Jordan.

 “The percentage that was announced by the Central Bank of Jordan is only an indicator and cannot be generalised to all of the Kingdom’s areas, especially given that it is a low percentage,” Awamleh said.

He noted that a possible reason as to why certain investors lowered their apartment prices could be bank loans. In some cases, the sellers needed urgent funds to pay back the loans, which pushed them to speed up the purchasing process, he said.