Real estate broker licence numbers in Kuwait rise by 17%

Pexels/Nour Qaloush

• 228 new real estate licences issued
• 295 licences were renewed
• 84 were cancelled last year

Almost 230 new licences were issued to land and property sales agents in Kuwait in 2023, bringing the total to 1,594 by the end of December, a 17 percent rise on 2022.

Kuwait’s property sector is hoping that a new law allowing foreigners to buy will lead to increased business opportunities.

A total of 228 new real estate licences were issued, data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s real estate department quoted by Kuwait’s Arab Times newspaper showed, while 295 licences were renewed and 84 were cancelled last year. 

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The highest number of new licences issued was in the fourth quarter of 2023, with 41 in October alone, while renewals peaked in March and October, with 33 each, and May with 29.

However, the third quarter also saw the highest number of licence cancellations, with 14 in October alone. 

As well as brokerage licences, the data included figures for the number of real estate valuation licences issued in 2023, which stood at 21, bringing the total to 157. The department also renewed 42 valuer licences and cancelled 14. 

The latest Kuwait Real Estate report from research company Markaz, part of Marmore Mena Intelligence, showed that Kuwait’s real estate market was stable in 2023, with average prices and rents holding steady and residential rents growing by 3.4 percent year on year in the second half of the year.

The market is expected to experience continued momentum this year on the back of forecast economic growth, stable inflation and the ending of monetary tightening for the sector, Markaz said. 

The value of real estate transactions fell 21 percent in the first half of 2023, to KD1.5 billion ($5.1 billion) from KD1.9 billion for the same period in 2022, an earlier Markaz report showed.

The dip was attributed to high residential property prices and interest rates, which reduced lending. 

Kuwait’s parliament set out plans last summer to approve a new mortgage bill and allow expats to buy property for the first time, to buoy the market.