Imposing taxes on expatriates will impact negatively on realty sector

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 18: A number of real-estate businessmen expressed strong messages concerning the repeated parliamentary calls to impose taxes and increased fees on expatriates, stressing that such a move will reflect negatively on the real estate sector, reports Al-Rai daily.

Head of the Real Estate Brokers Association Abdulrahman Al-Habib indicated that the negative impact on the entire real- estate sector especially the investment segment will be massive if the recent statements issued against expatriates are transformed into decisions.

He revealed that 90 percent of the flats in Kuwait are rented out to expatriates; therefore, any actions that could lead to departure of large number of expatriates will result in evacuation of a huge number of flats.

Meanwhile, Board Chairman of Al- Shabib Real-Estate Group Bader Al-Shabib insisted that the negative attitude of some MPs concerning expatriates in terms of increasing their expenses will affect the real-estate sector of the country very badly especially the investment and commercial segments. He revealed that he is expecting the rents of flats in Kuwait to be reduced by about 13 percent this year, indicating that many expatriates have already taken steps to send their families to their countries.

Al-Shabib stressed that the real-estate sector will face a serious problem this summer. In addition, an informed source from the real-estate sector revealed that the number of investment apartment buildings in Kuwait reached 14,000 by the end of 2016.

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