With rental yields at 10-12% and interest rates at 6.5% - why are expatriates renting?

Limited opportunity to purchase

The Pearl and one or two other sites are available to expatriates, Pearl is expensive, but still worth a look, long term be ok but 1 bed starts around 1.5 to 1.8 Mill QR, I would invest that at home before doing it here. Build quality is suspect too, trades arent licenced here. When I turn on my sink tap water comes out of the tiles below. When it rains, my villa floods out, water gets down the walls and pools in the kitchen, glad it doesnt rain often.

I wanted to build / buy in Al Khor where I live, my rent is QR23k per month (cheap) average is 28 to 30k now and rising, ours is locked in for 2 years. Can not purchase here.

Better to invest in Soverign Wealth Funds, 5% to 7% p/month tax free, no maintenance man issues, no chasing rent

Hope this helps
Rick

Expatriates consider a number of factors before making a leap to own a house:

Return on Investment
Maturity of Investment
Security Of Job (Continuity Estimation)
Legal Status/Priveleges
and many other factors.

I have recently come to Qatar from Dubai.I think Qatar has to take some drastic steps to make investor real comfortable like in Dubai.