Reality ends some Qatari dreams of World Cup rental bonanza

Cushman & Wakefield

26/11/2022 06:00

(Repeats from NOV 25, with no changes to text)

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      Agency says Qatar hotel group demanded new payments  
    

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      Some rates reduced, but many properties empty
    

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      Broker says some landlords sought unrealistic rents
    

  
    By Andrew  Mills
       DOHA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Qatar has found itself with an
unexpected glut of rooms in the World Cup's busy group stage,
with online portals showing rooms in at least 42 hotels and
Airbnb offering hundreds of options for this weekend. 
    That's a far cry from pre-tournament warnings by Qatari
officials, including Qatar Airways' CEO, and fan groups such as 
Football Supporters Europe of a shortage, which prompted
organisers to arrange extra accommodation in villas, apartments,
cruise ships, temporary cabins and even desert camps.
    Doha landlords had anticipated a bonanza from 1.2 million
visiting fans, with numbers forecast to peak Nov. 24-28, but the
surplus has caused rents to slump and will have knock-on effects
for the wider property market, some real estate agents said.
    Two real estate agents, two accommodation firms and tenants
say some landlords in the small Gulf state sought
unrealistically high rents in the lead up to the event, which
has left thousands of rooms vacant.
    Many fans have chosen to stay outside Doha and jet in for
matches, using up to 500 daily shuttle flights from nearby
cities like tourist hub Dubai that Qatar Airways' chief said
were laid on partly in response to what he called "a shortage of
accommodation". 
    "We were in contact with half of the city, all the big real
estate companies ... They weren't interested," said one
accommodation broker who has worked at several global sports
events and requested anonymity due to business sensitivities.
    The broker cited the example of a two-bedroom Doha apartment
that was listed at $1,200 per night in early October. A week
before the World Cup began on Nov. 20, the rate was $250 a
night, the broker said. 
    Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, which is
the tournament organiser, did not respond to Reuters request for
updated availability of rooms or why the anticipated shortage of
lodgings did not materialise.
    Organisers say a range of accommodation is on offer, from
$80 per night rooms on Doha's desert edges to luxury cruise ship
cabins, some costing thousands of dollars a day. 
    For the remaining peak nights, the official accommodation
portal on Friday showed rooms available in 42 hotels, villas and
apartments, while booking.com showed rooms in 73 properties and
Airbnb.com offered 503 "homes".
    Eleven days before kick-off, organisers had said there were
at least 25,000 rooms available for every night of the World
Cup. 
    PRICE HIKES
    In a sign of how the pre-tournament concerns raised
expectations among some hoteliers and landlords, Reuters has
been told of four instances of late price hikes.
    One group of 10 guests who arrived in Qatar from Italy a
week before the World Cup started were caught in a row between
their hotel and travel firm over a surcharge, their agent said. 
    Khaya Global told Reuters that in the two weeks before the
World Cup it received demands from each of the seven hotels it
has under exclusive contract for payments totalling at least
$550,000, on top of what it said was more than $10 million it
had pre-paid. Reuters has seen invoices for $550,000.
    Reuters has not seen the original contract in full, but has
reviewed a copy of a hand-written invoice for $40,000 which
Khaya boss Volkhard Bauer said was from the Al Mansour Park Inn.
Neither the hotel nor its owner responded to a Reuters request
to confirm the invoice.
    "Never ever, at no World Cup, have I heard anything like
this," said Bauer of the last-minute charges. His Khaya agency
has block-booked accommodation and sold rooms to fans, FIFA
sponsors and other officials at three previous World Cups.  
    Bauer's weary guests were finally checked in after the
agency wired the amount demanded, he told Reuters.
    Another hotel, the Waterfront Hotel and Apartments, sent an
invoice for $53,700, seen by Reuters, for guests to have extra
beds in nine rooms during the tournament, a surcharge increase
from an agreed $90 to $250 per night. 
    Neither hotel nor the owner of both responded to repeated
Reuters requests for comment.
    EMPTY PEARL 
    It's not only overseas visitors who have seen costs soar.
    While some landlords slashed prices as the tournament
neared, many were still trying to secure short-term business at
much higher rates, crowding out residents, the accommodation
broker and real estate agents said.
    Long-term rents in Qatar rose by more than 30% in the third
quarter, with some landlords demanding potential tenants sign
two-year leases locking them into current prices, a Sept. 30
report by real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield said. 
    Reuters spoke to long-term residents at five Doha apartment
buildings and two housing compounds who said landlords had in
the months before the tournament refused to renew annual
contracts and hiked rents.
    At The Pearl, a high-end residential neighbourhood built on
a man-made island, a 30-year-old Tunisian woman whose lease
expired in October said that her apartment owner had told her he
would only renew it once the World Cup ended.
    He made that conditional on her leaving behind her furniture
so he could rent the apartment out as a furnished unit, said the
woman, who declined to be named or to identify her landlord.
    "I found myself basically forced to say yes to his offer,"
she said, adding she was wary of committing to costly long-term
rates.
    But she still needed to rent a temporary apartment as her
soccer fan brothers had bought tickets for the tournament. 
 (Reporting and writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Dominic
Evans, Ghaida Ghantous and Alexander Smith)
 ((Andrew.Mills@thomsonreuters.com;))