Stock Sharjah Skyline, Al Khan Lagoon
Sharjah's Al Khan Lagoon area... The emirate introduced a series of reforms in the property market that seems to have scored well with buyers. A handful of new launches and rising number of new home handovers also helped. Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News

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.

Sharjah-2020-real-estate-transactions
Impressive second-half deal-making ensured Sharjah closed 2020 with its property market numbers in the plus. Image Credit: Supplied

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.