Hamad Alwazzan: “Kuwait’s real estate sector makes up for lost time”

With normalcy and financial activity finally resuming in Kuwait, real estate organizations recorded on the stock trade have begun making up for the enormous misfortunes recorded during the main portion of this current year. These losses were mainly caused by the restrictions imposed due to the Covid19 lockdown rules and regulations that forced the closure of malls, construction sites and the stop of all activities in the country. 

To help the citizen’s deal with these difficult financial times, the government permitted rental reductions as well as granted tenants payments delays and exemptions. These steps affected the gain profit of real estate companies for the first quarter of the year of 2020. According to real estate mogul Hamad Alwazzan, the measures taken by the government to ease up in the third quarter of the year allowed the real estate companies to start making up for losses. “Starting July the Kuwaiti government allowed the citizens to resume some economic activities after a full shutdown during the months of May and June”, he added. 

Based on the financial data of the real-estate companies listed on Kuwait Stock Exchange, which announced its data for the third quarter of this year so far. “34 out of 39 real estate companies were able to reduce and mitigate their losses recorded during the second quarter of this year by about 51 percent”, explained the Wharton graduate who specialized in Economics and Finance.

Despite that fact that 18 companies recorded losses in the first half of 2020, out of 30 real estate companies listed on the stock exchange, Mr Alwazzan believes that the sector will be invigorated again in 2021. “It’s true that almost  60% of real estate companies in the market recorded losses in the first half, the value of transactions on the sector’s shares since the beginning of 2020 amounted to 249 million dinars”, he concluded.