Kuwait real estate sales up 15% to $886m

Kuwait's real estate year-on-year sales growth is up 15% to KD251 Million ($886 million) during the month of October compared to 2102. A report attributes this growth to strong commercial sector growth. According to Kuwait’s top lender National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), sales in the commercial sector saw a solid rebound from a weak September. Other sectors were softer, probably reflecting the short working month, October did very well considering the week-long Eid Al-Adha Holiday; thus only three weeks of data were present, it stated. The sales in the residential sector reached KD158 million in October, an 11% y-on-y increase. The increase is the smallest since April and is a result of the drop in the number of transactions (-16% y-on-y), the NBK data shows.