Qatar’s Doha Tower, a spike-tipped cylinder that glows orange at night, won an award when finished in 2012 amid a Gulf-wide real estate boom, but today about half of its 46 floors are empty.
The office tower, now a familiar part of the capital’s high-rise skyline, has run foul of what real estate brokers, bankers and analysts say is an oversupplied Qatar property market ahead of the 2022 World Cup that mirrors a real estate downturn after a drop in oil prices.
Qatar has the added challenge of a diplomatic, trade and transport boycott imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt over charges that Doha supports Islamist militants.
The protracted row has made it tough to lure would-be foreign buyers of residential or commercial space.