Kuwait's real estate sales rose 15.5 percent year-on-year for much of last month, government data showed, despite vows by the GCC state to bring down property prices, a main contributor to inflation. Kuwait's inflation was 6.7pc in November, driven by a 12.6 percent jump in housing prices. The value of all real estate deals including residential, investment and commercial property rose to around 156 million dinars ($585 million) from February 3 to 21 compared to 135.1 million dinars in the same period a year ago, data shows. The figure covers direct real estate sales registered with authorities, excluding deals arranged by agents and lawyers. The number of real estate deals jumped to 839 last month from 460 a year ago. Sales of residential properties, the biggest part of the real estate business, rose to 96.62m dinars last month compared to 75.42 million dinars a year ago. Sales of commercial property doubled to 12.5m dinars, while investment property fell around 12pc to 46.9 million dinars. But Ghazi Abdul-Rahim, senior manager of economic research at National Bank of Kuwait, said he expected real estate prices to fall 10-20 percent this year as a new law had been approved to prevent commercial firms from trading in residential property. Meanwhile, the Kuwait Industry Exhibition is being currently held in Hall 4B at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds until April 5. __
