The real estate market in Sudan, according to dealers who spoke to Sky News Arabia, is experiencing unprecedented stagnation, in addition to a significant decline in the value of residential land and built houses.
The large supply of residential land corresponds to almost non-existent purchase, and the scarcity of liquidity has contributed to the worsening of the situation in the real estate market, as banks in the capital, Khartoum, have closed their doors since the start of the conflict. between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April.
Farouk Saeed, owner of a real estate agency in Omdurman, says: “The doors of my shop have closed and completely ceased to operate since the outbreak of the armed conflict. This will cause the capital of investors in this sector to freeze, and maybe losses. after the appearance of a fall in prices.
Saeed, who spoke to ‘Sky News Arabia’, believes the industry has entered a dark era after property losses began to haunt its owners, and the prevailing mental image of it was shaken, because everyone described it as a “safe investment”.
Electronic Marketing
With no real estate agencies closed due to the fighting, ordinary people have resorted to online groups and social networks to offer their residential land and houses in the capital, Khartoum, at lower prices than in the past, but there doesn’t seem to be any point in buying.
In some upmarket neighborhoods in eastern Khartoum, such as Riyadh, as well as in Bahri and the suburb of Jabra, south of the capital, which once rivaled the capitals of major countries in price, citizens were offering houses and residential land for sale. at around 30% lower amounts than before, while leaving room for negotiation, as some of these quarters were. His land is being sold for $1,200 to $1,400 per square meter, and now it’s down to $800 to $900 per square meter. meter, depending on what a real estate broker has concluded offers online.
Popular areas of the capital, Khartoum, such as Umbada, suburban Omdurman and East Nile, are facing the same fate, as many people have offered ready-made houses for sale at low prices, wishing to obtain money to help them leave the capital, Khartoum, to settle in safe areas, while no signs of operations appeared.
Salah Abdullah, real estate market broker, Semsar, points out in his interview with Sky News Arabia that the state of paralysis affecting the real estate sector is due to several factors, the most important of which are:
The scarcity of cash liquidity, and merchants and citizens exploited the sums they had for eating, drinking, and mainly the necessities of life. The deterioration of the security situation makes it almost impossible to access real estate or residential land for sale, which makes it difficult to buy or sell without an inventory. Closure of cadastral offices in the judicial system. The work of legal documentation offices and lawyers, necessary for the conclusion of purchase and sale contracts, has ceased.
Salah added, “In light of these combined reasons, it is difficult for the real estate market to function, because there is a state of complete paralysis and there are no prices at the moment, and yet there there are transactions that take place in a customary and civil manner.”
Possible collapse
Economic analyst Ahmed Khalil told Sky News Arabia that the real estate investment industry is at risk of complete collapse for several factors, including:
The upscale neighborhoods of the capital, Khartoum, have become a theater of military operations and have been destroyed, thus losing their market value. Investors are expected to flee to other safer Sudanese cities or abroad, which would be a blow to the sector. Absence of real estate bank financing due to the closure of government and commercial banks. Factories and large companies are expected to be relocated and spread to separate areas across Sudan, which will deal a blow to the real estate hub of the capital, Khartoum.
Khalil believes that the future of real estate investment in Sudan and in the capital Khartoum in particular depends on the extent to which lasting political stability is achieved that will bring citizens back home, stressing that this is a matter necessary for the return of the sector as an attractive destination for local and foreign investors.
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