In short
Malkiati publishes the median rent of live listings for each area and home type, not the average, because one unusual listing can drag an average far from what most homes cost. A figure is shown only when at least three priced listings support it, and daily or weekly lets are never mixed into a monthly rent.
When someone asks "how much is a 2 bedroom apartment in West Bay?", they want the price most homes like that are actually let for. That sounds like an average. It usually is not.
One penthouse can move an average
Take five apartments, to illustrate (these are not market figures): four let for QAR 9,000, 9,500, 10,000 and 10,500 a month, and one luxury unit for QAR 30,000. The average is QAR 13,800, higher than four of the five homes. The median, the middle value once the prices are sorted, is QAR 10,000, which is what a typical tenant will meet.
Property prices are almost always skewed this way: a few expensive homes and a long run of ordinary ones. The median ignores how extreme the extremes are, which is exactly what makes it honest here.
The rules behind every price on Malkiati
- Only live listings count: a listing that has expired or was taken down is not part of the figure.
- A price is shown only when at least three priced listings support it. Below that, the page says nothing rather than guess.
- Daily and weekly lets are excluded from rent figures. Their price is per day or per week, and adding them would make a monthly rent look absurdly low.
- Sale prices use the asking price of each listing.
- Months are counted in Qatar time, so a figure for October means October in Doha.
A range as well as a number
Area pages also show the middle half of prices: the range between the cheaper quarter and the dearer quarter of listings. It answers the next question a tenant asks, "what is a normal spread here?", without being pulled about by the extremes.
Why we publish the method
A number with no method is a claim you have to take on trust. Malkiati publishes how every price is calculated on its own page, so an agency, a journalist or a tenant can check the reasoning, and so the rules cannot quietly change.
Read the full method on Malkiati: malkiati.qa/how-we-calculate-prices. Current prices by area: malkiati.qa/qatar-rent-prices.