Cutting property sales fees for overseas buyers boosts Sharjah property market in 2020
Emirate cut these fees to 2% from 4% for overseas investors
Dubai: A strong second-half ensured Sharjah’s real estate sector recorded a 5.1 per cent growth in transactions for 2020, with 64,459 deals generating Dh15.9 billion.
Reducing the fees on sale value from 4 per cent to 2 per cent for non-GCC purchasers led to a significant increase of 32.5 per cent in the number sales by non-GCC investors. “This major decision, along with the latest stimulus package, boosted the economy of the emirate, and attracted direct foreign investments to the real estate sector,” said Abdul Al Shamsi, Director-General of Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department.
Projects launched in 2020 have helped revive transactions even with a pandemic on.
“This is apart from the supportive efforts of the Government, [which] adopted a series of decisions that helped the real estate sector not only overcome the COVID-19 pandemic crisis but rather grow,” Al Shamsi added.
Gains across categories
In all, 2020 saw the emirate issuing 12,248 ownership deeds, registering 4,644 initial sale transactions and 2,745 mortgage-based ones. There were 39,444 ownership certificates and 765 valuation transactions.
Up to 3,773 sales transactions were recorded in 2020, compared to 3,328 a year before.