Football fans are snapping up Dubai’s luxurious short-term rents for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup in November.

Football fans are scooping up short-term rentals in Dubai as an accommodation option for the much-awaited 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, realtors told Alarabiya.

Incoming football fans are mostly eyeing luxurious experiences in the neighbouring Gulf state, which can be reached in around one hour by flight.

Some are booking apartments that cost more than $410,000 (AED1.5 million) for the month-long football competition.

Despite Doha’s significant investment in hotel lodging and infrastructure for the world’s largest sporting event, several reports suggest that there could be a shortage of hotel rooms, forcing many to look for alternative accommodation options in the surrounding Gulf countries.

This was made easier after authorities announced plans to launch match-day shuttle flights between Doha and several regional cities throughout the event, providing fans with cheaper and more varied options around the region.

In total, FlyDubai is set to operate 30 daily return flights between Dubai and Doha, with 24 rotating flights scheduled between Doha and Muscat under Oman Air.

Twenty Saudia return flights will fly in from Riyadh and Jeddah, and 10 Kuwait Airways flights will rotate between Doha and Kuwait City.

The increase in flights for the event means the GCC region, particularly the UAE, will witness a significant boom in its tourism sector.

According to the Alarabiya report, estate agents in Dubai are already reporting an increase in demand from customers worldwide.

Harry Tregoning, of Tregoning Property, told Alarabiya that his company had already started enquiring for rentals in Dubai since last year.

“Firstly, I hope they have booked their air tickets as one-day returns during the tournament on Qatar Air start around $1,200 (AED4,500 return). If that is booked, then staying in Dubai is going to prove to be a very popular destination for fans to stay in,” he revealed.

“To rent a normal five-bed villa on Palm Jumeirah they were looking at rates of nothing below $61,000 (222,421 QAR) a month and in Jumeirah Islands nothing less than $34,000 (124,176 QAR) a month.”

The expert says that even though the rates seem pricy, most of those eying the luxurious apartments are high-end clientele.

“For four bedrooms with two adults in each, Raffles The Palm is around $68,000 (QAR 247,945) for 27 nights (their max stay is 28) in November and the cheapest for 27 nights at present is The Retreat Palm MGallery by Sofitel for $34,000 (QAR 124,176).”

For agents, he added, the tournament will serve as a huge business opportunity.

Vinayak Mahtani, CEO of bnbme, Dubai’s leading vacation home management company, is seeing a similar uptick in apartment requests.

“The short-term rental enterprise has been doing very nicely over the previous 24 months as COVID-19 noticed loads of purchasers wanting stays or vacationers wanting a property with privateness and rather less crowded as the standard inns. I consider the World Cup in Qatar can even appeal to massive numbers as a result of merely Dubai is the place everybody goes to wish to be,” he told the organisation.

“It has every thing an ideal vacation vacation spot wants to supply, in addition to proximity to the World Cup.”

Qatar’s accommodation options

Currently, the host nation has around 130,000 rooms available rooms for visitors.

Some of these include hotel rooms, floating hotels, villas, apartments, as well as fan villages.

Qatar’s hotels are expected to add around 5,000 rooms before the sporting event, as per a recent report by real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Meanwhile, the number of hotel and serviced apartment rooms is set to expand to around 45,000 ahead of the World Cup in November.