I initially thought it was a good investment on arriving in Qatar but think again.
My strong advice: Please, please, please don't buy any property in Qatar. Ever. Especially the pearl. Why? Let's look at the pro's and cons.....
I hope this helps you to make an informed decision.....
Pros:
1) Can drink in the restaurants (same as if you just drove there).
2) Pork and booze shop coming.
3) Nice area of town.
Cons:
1) Quality is really bad.
2) Hard/ impossible to re-sell.
3) It's way overpriced.
4) The cooling bills are a mess and a nightmare. Astronomical.
5) It's not freehold - it's all on a 99 year lease. (It's in the small print in Arabic - it refers you to some appendix xxx, sub chapter yyy, of law zzz - Believe me, this is true - confirmed by Local Lawyer) but as it's written in Arabic, 99% of people don't know about that, or worse, if they have bought there - deny it to perpetrate the myth (for resale reasons
)
6) The law is always against you. Always in favour of the local freeholder.
7) No properly defined Property laws / precidents. Full of holes.
8) Unless you buy in cash then you have to take a mortgage and the 6% interest they quote you will be more like 10% when you use a western calculator!
9) If you lose your job and default on the mortgage, you can't leave the country till its paid off. They cancel your RP and (multi) exit visa, as you no longer have a sponsor you can't get a job, as you don't have an RP. So you can't pay. Or leave.
10) Regarding the above, obviously you have to pay insurance to the lender against defaulting on the payments. If you default, though somehow it's never covered!
11) You have to start making loan repayments from a set date EVEN if it isn't built or inhabitable for 2-3 years later. So you may have to pay rent AND a mortgage on 2 places simultaneously when you can't even live in it. Or sell it, as who's gonna pay a mortgage on a place you can't live in yet?
12) If you want to leave in an emergency (or just leave), you can't sell for less than the developer is selling units for in that tower, whilst he has units left to sell. i.e. you can't undercut the good old local. Also, they like to keep a property or 10 empty and on sale at a high price to try and keep prices artificially high.
13) There are plenty of places empty on the pearl, as the locals want high rent, and so do the expats that bought (although eventually they realise that they have to accept much less or get nothing - the expats that is.) the locals don't care, they just leave them empty, money isn't a factor. Most of the locals would rather wait with it empty for 2 years to get 15,000QR per month for an apartment than drop the price to 10,000QR and have it fully occupied for 2 years. They have no financial common sense. For them this is better, as they are getting a "higher rent" and not loosing face by reducing the rent.
14) Quite a few construction companies went bust, so those towers won't get built - will people get their deposits or payments back? Can you guess the answer to that?
If you can accept all this risks then go for it.
Personally, I wouldn't touch it with yours!