Omani Property Rose 22.7 Percent on the Year, on an Index That Measures Value Rather Than Price
The value of real estate transactions in Oman reached 316.9 million rials in the second quarter of 2026, 6.5 percent higher than the first quarter and 22.7 percent higher than the same quarter of 2025, according to the statistics centre’s quarterly report. The figure is preliminary and the series is based on 2018.
That 22.7 percent is the number the centre publishes as its real estate price index, and the index moves with it exactly: the general index reads 129.9 points for the second quarter against 105.9 a year earlier, which is the same 22.7 percent on our calculation. But the index is built from the value of sale transactions rather than from prices paid per unit. The report’s own footnote says the indices are calculated for the sale transaction by value and by number, and a companion page in the same report calls the construct a value index. So the series is labelled a price index and measures turnover, and a reader who takes 22.7 percent as house price inflation will have the wrong number. Nothing in the report describes the rise as a record.
| Segment | Value, OMR million | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|
| General index | 316.9 | +22.7% |
| Residential | 227.7 | +24.6% |
| Commercial | 89.2 | +12.4% |
Value of real estate transactions, second quarter 2026, preliminary. Residential and commercial sum exactly to the general index.
Land is doing the work
Inside the residential total, land is the largest line by far. Residential land accounted for 197.5 million rials and rose 28.0 percent on the year, against 17.6 million for apartments, up 17.2 percent, 24.7 million for villas, up 10.8 percent, and 5.9 million for other houses, up 0.6 percent. Those 4 lines come to 245.7 million rials on our calculation, which is 18.0 million more than the residential total the report gives, so the published sub lines do not reconcile to the published subtotal. On the commercial side, commercial land came to 79.3 million and rose 19.2 percent while the other 2 lines fell, commercial shops by 12.0 percent and industrial land by 3.9 percent.
| Line | Value, OMR million | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|
| Residential land | 197.5 | +28.0% |
| Villas | 24.7 | +10.8% |
| Apartments | 17.6 | +17.2% |
| Commercial shops | 2.5 | -12.0% |
Selected lines. The report publishes no agricultural land series. The commercial sub lines sum exactly to the commercial total; the residential ones do not.
The transaction counts say the same thing more bluntly. There were 16,894 property transactions in the quarter on our calculation, of which residential accounted for 15,653, or 92.7 percent, and residential land alone for 84.2 percent of all transactions. Commercial was 1,241 transactions, 7.3 percent. Residential is 71.9 percent of the value on our calculation and commercial 28.1 percent.
The index and a more recent number
| Series | Second quarter 2026 | Second quarter 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| General index | 129.9 | 105.9 |
| Residential | 129.8 | 104.1 |
| Commercial | 130.2 | 115.8 |
Index points, base 2018 equals 100. The centre’s own homepage still displays 121.9 points for the first quarter of 2026 and has not been rolled forward.
The centre published a separate figure on 15 September putting the traded value of property in Oman at 1,715.7 million rials at the end of July 2026, up 7.7 percent on the same period a year earlier, against 1,593 million. That is the freshest official Omani property number and it runs at roughly a third of the pace of the quarterly figure, well below the second quarter rate once the comparison is extended through July.
Why it matters: For anyone reading Gulf property from outside, the label on the series is the whole story here. On our reading a 28.0 percent rise in residential land value on 84.2 percent of all transactions describes a market where activity is concentrated in plots rather than in built stock, and where the 2 built commercial lines, shops and industrial land, are falling. The transaction data therefore describe a market overwhelmingly led by land activity. On their own they do not establish a broad based rise in what a house costs, because the centre publishes no separate per unit price series that would show one.
Outlook: The second quarter figures are marked preliminary and may be revised. The centre’s year to date series, which now runs to July, is the one to watch, because it is where a strong quarter either persists or washes out.
Sources: National Centre for Statistics and Information, Oman.
