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Kuwait real estate transaction value up 34% in 2024

By Chris Hamill-Stewart
Property in Kuwait City is more expensive than Cambridge or San Francisco Alamy via Reuters
Property in Kuwait City is more expensive than Cambridge or San Francisco
  • Transactions worth $9b
  • Residential deals dominate
  • Kuwait City prices soar

The value of real estate transactions in Kuwait grew 34 percent year on year in 2024.

In total, 4,950 transactions were worth KD3.73 billion, or around $9 billion, in 2024, compared with 4,442 transactions worth KD2.78 billion in 2023.

Only the country’s coastal strip saw a decline in transactions, with deals dropping 44 percent.

Residential transactions made up KD1.5 billion of the total, with real estate contracts contributing KD1.2 billion of the total and commercial investments KD745 million.

The country continues to be an attractive destination for foreign workers, pushing up real estate values.

Expats currently make up around 73 percent of Kuwait’s 4.3 million population, meaning competition for the country’s limited housing stock is strong.

In Kuwait the median apartment price to family income ratio stands at 7.5, while the same score for Saudi Arabia and the UAE hover around 3 and 4, respectively, according to Numbeo.

The country’s capital, Kuwait City, has a ratio of 9.4 – making it more expensive relative to cities such as Luxembourg City, Cambridge and San Francisco.

“Limited availability of land, higher demand, lack of supply and longer time to build infrastructure have led to the surge in housing prices,” MR Raghu, chief executive of Marmore Mena Intelligence, a research subsidiary of Kuwait Financial Center, told AGBI in November.

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