Few takers for costly new apartments

Real estate appraisers discovered during assessment tours of some apartments that prices are unjustifiably high.New apartments throughout Makkah Province are going unsold as buyers shy away from purchasing new apartments since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2012, a source from a special committee at JCCI told Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. "This reluctance to buy started early in the last quarter of 2012," the source said, adding that there has been a dip in apartment sales of more than 20 percent. "Four factors contributed to this decline, most prominently the exaggerated high prices that are now over 50 percent more than the fair price." 

The committee noted that there has been a shift in the market as a result of the major role played by the government in real estate development, represented by the Ministry of Housing and the Real Estate Development Fund . "Demand for old building units and apartments more than 10 years old increased on the part of low-income citizens, and those with middle income and higher, as they have access now to bank financing," the committee reported, saying that most citizens look for villas with small spaces ranging between SR 1.1 million and SR 1.4 million. 

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