Housing developers association laments hike in apartment prices

AMMAN — Soaring apartment prices in central and north Amman will hinder demand for residential apartments and adversely affect Jordanian youth’s ability, in particular, to own an apartment.

In an interview with The Jordan Times, Kamal Awamleh, president of Jordan Housing Developers Association (JHDA), said that the housing industry “significantly boosts the local economy and thereby needs to be supported”.

He added that the high interest rates in Jordan, which range between 7-10 per cent, adversely affect Jordanians’ ability to own an apartment. 

“Decreasing interest rates to 3 per cent, at least for apartments sized 150 square metres or less, will certainly bring in new potential buyers,” Awamleh said.

He noted that owning an apartment or a house is considered to be “some sort of security in our society”.

According to Awamleh, around 29,000 residential apartments were sold in 2020, while 29,600 apartments were sold between January and September this year. 

“We expect to have 35,000 apartments sold across the Kingdom by the end of the year,” he noted.

Awamleh attributed the increase in apartment prices to the rising steel and cement prices, as well as the surge in shipping costs, which increased the cost of key building materials.

Another factor that led to a tenfold increase in apartment prices in the aforementioned areas of Amman was the governmental procedure which raised fees paid for the division of the apartments (secretion).

“The fee cost used to range between JD200-JD300, but now it is 10 times more, ranging between JD2,000 andJD3,000 for one apartment,” according to Awamleh.

“The housing sector employs tens of thousands of people in Jordan, in addition to operating with 70 other sectors,” he concluded.