Region’s interiors industry skyrockets, thanks to Qatar's building surge

Qatar’s building surge ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has sparked a boom in interior design spend across the Gulf – with the region's décor and fit-out market now worth almost $18bn per year.

A region-wide study commissioned by Index Qatar, a new interior design exhibition taking place in Doha this November, found that the State’s mammoth spend on infrastructure and real estate is helping skyrocket the value of the region’s interiors industry.In the last year alone, the fit-out market has grown by more than $2.2bn, and is now estimated at being worth $17.7bn per annum.The report, commissioned exclusively by Index and carried out by market analysts Ventures, concluded that interior design is one of the Gulf’s fastest growing industries.A spokesperson for Ventures said: “Contractors should consider themselves fortunate to be in a region that is still very active compared to many other parts of the world, despite low oil prices.“With the current slowdown in the market and the fast-approaching dates for the likes of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, developers and consultants are bound to turn their attention towards providing high-quality refurbishments to their existing projects, in turn fuelling the demand for interiors and fit-out contractors. "The value of projects in the construction and interiors pipeline is four times the value of projects completed in the past 10 years.”Index Qatar will bring together international product manufacturers and interior design firms at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre from November 13 to 15, according to a press statement.The show is expected to attract thousands of interior designers, architects, project managers, importers and distributors from the full spectrum of retail, hospitality, residential and commercial design.With a weekly spend of more than $500mn being put into infrastructure projects ahead of Qatar taking centre-stage in 2022, Index arrives at an opportune time for designers looking to make the most of the country’s surging interiors market, itself valued at almost $3bn a year and growing, the statement notes.Jaafar Shubber, Index Qatar event director, said: “The region, Qatar in particular, will play host to some of the world’s biggest events over the next decade, and the construction and redevelopment process for each of those is already well under way, across all sectors: hospitality, commercial real estate, retail, health and hospitals, and education. It’s hugely exciting.”According to the report, the Gulf region’s interiors industry is valued at its highest within the building sector, where its annual worth is $9.2bn – up almost $1bn on last year. The commercial real estate ($1.1bn), hotel ($2.1bn), retail ($1.2bn), hospital ($667mn) and education ($452mn) sectors have all increased interiors investment since 2016. The residential sector remained buoyant with an annual value of more than $3bn.