Overbuilding Leads to Lower Rents in Doha
Rents to tank in two years, says expert
Web posted at: 8/10/2009 1:43:47
Source ::: The Peninsula / By MOBIN PANDIT
DOHA: One of Qatar’s most trusted real estate investment experts says he sees the rental market taking a massive beating over the next two years due to excessive housing supplies.
Currently, there are no less than 15,000 apartments ready for occupancy across Doha literally with no takers, says Nasser Mohamed Al Mansoory, CEO of Qatar Oman Investment Company, a listed entity.
And there are many housing projects in and around the city which are coming up and expected to be ready for uptake by next year, he told The Peninsula yesterday.
The population of the country, according to him, is already down from 1.9 million at the peak of the housing shortage recently, to around 1.6 million. “These are the latest figures. So, with so many people having left, where do you think the demand is going to come from,” wondered Al Mansoory.
Not only apartments, there are villas as well which are lying vacant all around. Little thinking has gone into these projects and that explains why there is suddenly a dearth of takers.
These are the units which are difficult to attract tenants on high rentals given the fact that supplies are excessive while the demand is limited. “We, therefore, expect the rents to come down,” said the CEO whose company actively invests in the real estate sectors in Qatar and Oman.
He said thoughtfully: “I wouldn’t be surprised if over the next two years (by 2010-11) you see the rents in Doha back to their previous levels to QR1,200 and QR1,400 monthly.” Already, two-bedroom apartments whose going rates were QR8,000 not too long ago, are now available for QR5,000.
“See the newspapers. Their classifieds are full of ads for all categories of vacant houses day in and day out, clearly signaling that supplies far exceed demand.”
Similar is the situation with office space, he said. Supplies are now abundant. The rates per square metre are sliding by the day. In the Old Airport area, next to a building where office space is available for QR250 per square metre, the going rate, for example, is QR160 per sq metre.
Finding the new Ponderosa Steakhouse in Doha
“Are you sure you know where it is?” AdventureMan asked.
“Well, pretty sure.” I answered, and God bless him, as hungry as he is and as tired as he is after a long day at work, he just sighs and trusts me.
“If this doesn’t work, we can always eat at Villagio,” he says, and I marvel at his equilibrium.
“The man at the other Ponderosa said you go three roundabouts from Ramada junction and it is on your right, and then he said something else but I didn’t understand.” I added.
We went three roundabouts, and then started taking the slip roads, an adventure in itself. We saw a lot of car repair places, some smaller Lebanese restaurants with all guys eating inside, and had to go back and forth, because sometimes the slip road ended, sometimes the shop roads ended. After another roundabout, and a long row of very modern, empty glass office-looking buildings on the right, there it was, clearly visible from the road, and I realize what the man had been telling me was that it was above the Pizza Hut.
This is what it looks like from Salwa:
This is what it looks like from the side road – “Ponderosa “steakhouse” in Arabic
Maybe about once every three months or so, when I really felt a need for some meat, we would brave the horrible road-trek at Cholesterol Corner, otherwise known as the Ramada Junction, to eat at Ponderosa. It isn’t fancy, but it truly is popular, with its buffet and inexpensive steaks. I really like their filet, just a little 6 oz. steak but they do it better than many of the big expensive hotel restaurants.
If this works, we have said to ourselves, it would be a real blessing for us, not to have to hassle with the traffic patterns of entrance and exits, not to mention the congestion.
When we get inside, the blessings just continue to pour forth – we learn that this is their first night open to the public (we didn’t know!) and that they had promotions going – the buffet was 29 QR – which is what the price was six years ago, before it started creeping up – and that every main entree on the menu included the buffet and tonight only was only 40 QR (around $11).
So for $11 each, AdventureMan ordered the fried fish, and I ordered the filet mignon. Taking a risk, I even ordered it MEDIUM RARE.
The Ponderosa Buffet is the Ponderosa Buffet. It has some American salads, some Arabic salads, and a taco bar, and a dessert bar and a soft ice-cream machine. It was all very very clean and well presented.
When my steak came and I bit into it – it was truly amazing – medium rare! AdventureMan said his fish was very lightly battered and very hot and fresh tasting.
I didn’t remember to take photos until about halfway through. I must be the absolute worst restaurant reviewer in the world. That’s where my filet steak used to be, LOL:
Yes. I used some A-1 Sauce. I love it on steak. But I tasted the steak first, and it was a great steak.
There used to be four pieces of this hot, delicious fried fish.
The dessert bar:
I had watermelon, AdventureMan had a lot of the fruits, but I could see most people were going for the chocolate pudding and the soft ice cream. 🙂
The Ponderosa is upstairs, over the Pizza Hut. You enter from the side road. Paved parking is limited – maybe 12 spots – but there is that hard rocky surface, lots and lots of it. This is supposed to be the biggest Ponderosa in Doha, and it may be – it is full of booths, all very private, several different areas.
We won’t go that often – we have other favorites – but we are really really glad this Ponderosa has gone in, and we don’t have to go down to C-ring anymore in that maze of mad motorists. We also think that with all the housing going farther and farther out of Doha, they chose a very smart location to attract those moving away from the center. And – I am impressed – my steak really was medium rare!
Think Pink Walk October 30th
This is what I love – advance planning and advance notification so I can mark my calendar now and look forward to the walk on October 30th. Not only that, I can tell all my friends, so they will be there, too. This is a grand event, a great way to exercise and show support for a worthy cause at the same time.
Women all over the world die because they are afraid to talk about breast cancer, afraid they will be shunned, afraid they will be treated as damaged or inferior. Fear can kill us. Silence can kill us. Supporting one another and encouraging one another can be part of the coping process and the healing process.
Please – mark your calendars, too. I want to see you there.
Breast cancer support group gears up for annual event
Web posted at: 8/9/2009 2:57:6
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: Think Pink Qatar, a Doha-based support group for breast cancer patients and survivors, has set the ball rolling for upcoming events it will be organising.
Drawing approximately 30 volunteers to an organisational meeting yesterday, the group initiated the process for one of its major annual events, the Think Pink Breast Cancer Walk of Life. Due to take place on the evening of October 30 at the Corniche, volunteers have been mobilised to make the event as much of a success as last year’s event.
The recent meet will lead up to other events the support group will be undertaking in September and October include a Pink-Out Day at schools, the Think Pink Benefit Gala, a Pink Hijab Day, and Proctor and Gamble sponsorship. There will also be a Harley Davidson Women’s Ride for Life, organised by Margarita Zuniga, courtesy of the Harley Davidson’s Women’s club.
Due to growing interest from community members, Think Pink Qatar is organising its 1,000 plus volunteers and members into a coherent line-up in time for event. “Today’s meeting is to start organising for this event, as many have volunteered, and we have now found it necessary to devise teams, covering sponsorship, music, event planning,” said Karen Al Kharouf, Founder of Think Pink Qatar. “Because the group has grown from 200 to 1,000 members, there is the need for consistency and a centralized system.”
More volunteers are hoped for, to take the currently part-time organisation full–time, and to add to numerous out-reach programmes the group currently runs. This includes adding more to the survivors groups, and the Pink Candies, a group of older teenagers who provide morale support for breast cancer sufferers. Al Kharouf underlined the need to create greater awareness in Qatar, as many women dislike talking about the disease, hence its high death rate.
PS: I see Peninsula says the walk is on the 30th, Gulf Times says it is on the 31st. Hmmm. . . .
Beijing Restaurant near Ramada Hotel, Doha
When we were in Doha the last time, our favorite Chinese restaurant was the Gulf Royal, a quirky second floor restaurant that delivered, but first, you had to visit the restaurant and get in their book. The book was names and addresses of all the families in Doha who liked Chinese food – and maps to their houses. Total hoot! We drew our map, and then looked through, laughing at how many of the names we knew.
Gulf Royal disappeared during a huge street re-do back behind Al Saad, and now, a new building is there, maybe the fencing club, and the Gulf Royal is no longer.
Never mind. After searching through The Qaterliving.com website I knew that the place to go was the Beijing, a restaurant we had tried once or twice before, but somehow, had drifted on to others.
Get there before 7 is the first rule. If you get there after 7:30, all the tables are packed, all the parking spots taken. The restaurant if full and people are waiting to be seated.
We had an excellent chicken Kung Pao, and a good shrimps with black bean sauce. The shrimp were plentiful and perfectly cooked, we just prefer a little more black bean taste, but next time we will know to ask. And the Beijing DELIVERS!
This is how you get there:
Here are the hours:
And here is part of the menu – there is more!
The waiters and waitresses speak good English. One of our dishes, we got the wrong dish, and sent it back. The waitress came back and asked if we still wanted our original dish (the kitchen had gotten very busy) or if we wanted it taken off our order. By that point we were full, and asked to have it taken off our order.
We saw lots of delicious and sizzling dinners go by as we were waiting and as we were eating. We will be going back to try some of them, too.
John Lockerbie, Catnaps and Islamic / Arabic Design
One of the reasons I love going to museums over and over again is because I can only absorb so much at one time. Every time I see an exhibit, I learn something new. The next time I go to the Doha Islamic Museum I am going to go by myself, get the headsets, and get an overview. It will be my seventh trip to the museum. I am ready to go a little deeper.
You know you have read a good book – even if you didn’t like it when you read it – when your mind keeps going back there, time after time, mulling over questions, thinking of alternative endings, thinking even about what you didn’t like – a book that troubles you enough to make you THINK is a good book.
John Lockerbie’s website, Catnaps does the same thing for me. As I drive around Kuwait and Doha, I see things and get the great “aha” because I have read articles he writes about Islamic / Arabic houses, their origins, how the earliest houses were constructed, problems with modern constructions. I can’t absorb it all at once, so I visit again and again. I look for window shadings, and I look for air conditioning. Because of his website, I am more aware when I take in the architecture.
Here, for example, is a relatively new building, but look what they did for air conditioning. I was in the building next door; the offices are air conditioned but the hall is hot and breathless.
As I went to the site today to get the reference, I got lost once again in the boat section. Now, I do know my shuw’i from my booms! I’m still working on the others. The very cool thing is John Lockerbie is always learning new stuff, too, and often updates what he has written, so there is always something new to learn on this site.
Don’t try to take it in all at once. Go often to visit and peruse. There is so much there that will enrich your stay in the Gulf if you understand a little more about what you are seeing.
Mr. Lockerbie used one of my photos to show a shaded garden. I haven’t the heart to tell him that the very next week they came and took off the tops of all my trees so the lawn would grow, but now my garden has harsh sunlight like the rest of Doha. The trees grow really fast – several feet per year – so it won’t be long before I have some shade once again.
Amjad Thai Snack on Merqab al Jedeed
AdventueMan and I have different preferences dining out. Actually, I don’t even care that much to go out, I totally loved Kuwait’s system, everything and anything can be delivered. That worked for me! AdventureMan likes to go out, sit, enjoy his dinner, have a relaxing experience.
He doesn’t like Amjad Thai Snack, but he does agree with me that the food is outstanding. Our agreement is this – If I go get the food, he will gladly eat it, but he doesn’t want to go there.
The food is amazing. The place is a dive.
Six years ago, Thai Snack was just that – a few tables and chairs outside a Thai Massage Parlor on Merqab, closer to the C Ring Circle than the D Ring. It used to be you always knew where it was because they had these neon signs of massages. One of the massage signs started out slow and got faster and faster and then when WOW! POP! Sparkles-all-over! We would take people down to watch the signs at night, they were so funny. Finally, I am guessing someone else figured out that they had ambiguous sexual overtones, and the neon signs are no longer there.
I think the massage parlor is still there, but the success of Amjad Thai Snack has just grown and grown. It grew to one inside serving room, then two, then three. It’s nothing fancy. No tablecloths, you get your own flatware from bins on the table. Your waiter takes your order and then you take a chit that has your table number on it to the cashier to pay before you leave. They really have an efficient, high tech system for a very low tech kinda joint.
Did I mention the food is amazing?
The first night AdventureMan agreed to take me there, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get in, on a hot, steamy night in Doha, crowded in with all the other people waiting to get in, crowded more by those coming in to pick up their orders. Amjad Thai Snack does BIG business.
The noodle soups are easily enough for a meal for two people, and enough for a first course for four.
Shrimp Noodle soup:
Fish with Spicy Basil:
Fish with Spicy Basil served over rice:
Other dishes can be split and shared. It’s part of my family tradition – growing up on the West Coast of the USA, great and authentic Chinese / Japanese / Vietnamese /Korean cuisines available everywhere, it was the fast-food I grew up on. Our extended family would get together in a restaurant and everyone would order one dish – maybe 26 – 30 dishes coming around the table, and you were encouraged to try anything. One of my joker cousins would order something gross and we would all try it.
It’s not AdventureMan’s thing, although he likes it well enough. His preference would be to eat Chinese in a nice hotel where he can get a beer with his dinner, but most of the hotel Chinese food is too dumbed-down for me.
Amjad Thai Snack is not dumbed down. The Fish (or Chicken, or beef, or seafood, if you prefer) in spicy basil sauce is delicious. Their curries are delicious. They have wonderful appetizers, wontons and buns. They do hot pots that serve a table of four to eight. Their noodle soups are divine. They are so well packed that not a drop gets spilled on the trip home.
You can call your order ahead and it will be waiting for you when you get there. Parking can be a problem, but if you get there before 7:30 pm, you should be OK. You can often find parking across the street, too.
Last , but not least, if you can read the menu, and I apologize that it is small, you will notice it is all correctly spelled and grammatically correct. This is an amazing advancement in six years. We used to find things on menus in Doha that totally mystified us, and when we would ask, the answers would also mystify us. Not anymore. 🙂
Mixed Message: Doha Dressing
With all the advisories going out, to both men and women but seemingly especially pointed at women, telling us to cover up, and be respectful of local culture and traditions, and especially not to dress disturbingly during Ramadan, I had to smile today in the mall (no not The Mall, another mall) when I saw these darling dresses in the window. OK, so we buy the dresses – who could resist? WHERE can we wear these dresses?
(They really are adorable dresses, and the Ramadan sales are already cranking up, Wooo HOOOO!)
Doha Roadwork
You think you know your way around, but in Doha, that can all change from day to day due to the roadwork. I was in that position this last week, found myself not wanting to re-do a 2 kilometer detour, so figured I could find my way through the back streets, which I did.
I didn’t know there were still streets in Doha I had never seen, but these were such streets, and oh what fun. I found this unusual and delicate mosque:
While lost, I also discovered a traffic roundabout I had been looking for. Expats have different names for many of the roundabouts, and those names are totally different from the real, local names, like The Mall roundabout, Green Steps roundabout – we know what they are, but those aren’t the real names.
The roundabout I had been looking for was Kotub, but I found it – Qutub – also called Library roundabout. Nearby is supposed to be a take-away place called Felasteen; someone told me they have the best felafel in the city. We used to go to place on Najma called Al Quds, but now he doesn’t do felafel any more, only sweets. We especially liked his bread, thin but with toasted sesame seeds embedded in the bread – oh YUM. We are hoping the Felasteen measures up to the old Al Quds felafel.
New Parking Souq Al Waqif
When I moved to Doha, in 2003, I did a panorama shot of the Doha skyline from the-spit-where-the-Bandar-restaurants-used-to-be. Unfortunately, I wasn’t into digital yet, so all I have is prints from film. In 2003, parking at the airport was free. I was told Doha meant sleepy, and then, it seemed pretty sleepy, even with the Iraqi invasion about to take place.
The Souq al Waqif was off limits to the military, a dark and dangerous place. I don’t believe it was dangerous for the same reasons they thought it was dangerous – the authorities thought that because it was a very traditional shopping area, incidents could happen. The real danger was from the uneven walking areas, with unexpected pits here and there or slick spots, or changes of elevation.
The last night I was recently down at the Souq al Waqif for dinner, I saw a small bus load of people arrive from the military base (the haircuts, duh) and it just made me grin. The Souq al Waqif is still a traditional place – and it is also a place that welcomes tourists, and welcomes expats. I am so thankful it is no longer, evidently, off-limits.
But oh, the parking. They have marked spaces. No, I am not so traditional that I insist on chaotic parking, marked spaces are fine. The marked spaces are fine, that is, when they give drivers enough space to park and to pull out. The new marked spaces at the Souq al Waqif are too small, and the driving lane between them has to weave between the Yukons on the left, the Denalis on the right and the delivery truck in front who just hit the Hummer trying to back out.
I am not exaggerating. Traffic was snarled for a half an hour while the police tried to sort out not one – but two accidents in the time I was trying to find a parking spot. On what felt like the hottest day of the year, you can imagine, it wasn’t even prime time at the Souq al Waqif. I can imagine the nights are a nightmare.
This is what I saw for half an hour while we didn’t move, except for people on the left who kept trying to edge in front of me:
But – where else but at the Souk al Waqif while you are stuck in a parking lot jam will you see a man cross in front of you with a pigeon in a cage?
And while the official temperature may have been 43°C or 44°C, this is what my gauge said:
Whoever designed the parking at Souq al Waqif should have to park there every day until it gets fixed.
Qatar Government Schools to Open September 27
Government schools to reopen on September 27
Web posted at: 8/6/2009 2:31:6
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: Qatar is to witness its usual post-summer hustle and bustle from the end of next month as the numerically sizeable government and Independent schools open for a fresh academic year on September 27, a little less than a week after Eid Al Fitr.
The Minister of Education and Higher Education, H E Saad bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, yesterday announced the schedule for both the morning and evening government educational institutions for the new academic year.
Being the Secretary-General of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), the regulatory body for Independent Schools, the minister also declared the schedule of the Independent Schools for the entire year (2009-10).
The administrative staff of these schools is required to report for duty on September 13, during the holy month of Ramadan.
The first semester examinations of schools from the elementary to the preparatory level are to be held from January 31 next year, while high school students will sit for their exams from January 21.
The winter vacation of these schools will start on February 14 and end a fortnight later, while their annual exams are to be held by June-end 2010.
The schools will reopen after the summer break on September 21, 2010.
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 