Rent in Oman: Prices by Area, Lease Rules and Costs (2026)

Rent in Oman: Prices by Area, Lease Rules and Costs (2026)

As of 25 October 2026, rent in Oman for a two-bedroom flat in Muscat runs from about OMR 350 ($910) a month in Qurum to about OMR 710 ($1,850) in Al Mouj, according to the Savills Oman market report for the first quarter of 2026. Studios and one-bedroom flats in the older districts are advertised at roughly OMR 130 to 330 ($340 to $860), four-bedroom villas in Al Mouj average OMR 1,700 ($4,420), and rent in Oman outside Muscat is lower still. The rent is normally contracted for a year, the landlord registers the lease with the municipality and pays a fixed 3% tax, and the tenant pays the electricity and water bills.

This guide brings the published figures for rent in Oman into one place: the Savills averages and listing guide prices, the Hamptons asking rents for the first half of 2026, an agency sample of September asking rents, crowd-sourced figures for Salalah and Sohar, and the official consumer price statistics that say what housing costs did over the last year. It then explains the tenancy rules (what a landlord may raise, what notice means, where disputes go), the registration tax, the cash needed on day one, and the utility tariffs, with worked monthly budgets for a single expatriate and for a family. Every figure carries its source and date. Nothing here is a forecast or a recommendation to rent or buy; the arithmetic is shown so that you can repeat it with the rent on a real offer.

Rent in Oman at a Glance

The table collects the numbers that matter most for anyone budgeting for rent in Oman. Each row is explained in a later section, with the document it comes from. All amounts are in Omani rials with US dollars in brackets at the fixed peg of 2.6008 dollars to the rial.

Two cautions apply to every number for rent in Oman. First, the country does not publish an official rent level by district. The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) collects rent for its price index, and its May 2026 inflation report says rent data come from a sample of 1,509 rented units, but it publishes the result inside a wider housing group, not as a district rent table. Second, the district figures that do exist come from agencies and portals, measure different things (averages for the units an agency tracks, asking prices on listings, guide prices from one brokerage), and should be read as a range, not as the rent of a particular flat.

How Much Is Rent in Oman per Month?

Monthly rent in Oman depends on district, size and whether the home is furnished. In Muscat, published two-bedroom averages run from OMR 350 in Qurum to OMR 710 in Al Mouj, one-bedroom flats in older districts are advertised from about OMR 200 to 330, and villas range from about OMR 450 in outer districts to more than OMR 2,000 in beachfront communities. Outside Muscat the typical figure is lower.

The cleanest comparison is the two-bedroom apartment, because three independent sources measure it for the same districts. The table sets the Savills average for the first quarter of 2026 beside the Hamptons asking rents for unfurnished two-bedroom apartments with facilities in the first half of 2026, which the Oman Observer reported on 13 September 2026.

The two columns agree on the order of the districts at the top and the bottom. Al Mouj is the dearest of the districts in both, and Al Khuwair and Al Ghubra sit at the low end of Hamptons’ list. They disagree on Qurum and Al Khuwair: Savills puts the Qurum average at OMR 350 and Al Khuwair at OMR 385, while Hamptons shows Qurum at about OMR 450 and Al Khuwair at about OMR 250. That is not an error in either report. Savills reports an average for the units in its tracking sample, and the Hamptons figures are asking prices on listings for a stated type of flat, unfurnished and with building facilities. A third source, an agency sample of listings described below, finds two-bedroom asking rents of OMR 200 to 450 in Bawshar and OMR 220 to 300 in Al Khuwair, which fits neither column exactly and shows how wide the spread is inside one district.

A useful way to read these numbers is as a ratio. The Al Mouj average of OMR 710 is 2.03 times the Qurum average of OMR 350 (710 divided by 350). Muscat Hills sits at 1.40 times Qurum (491 divided by 350). Choosing the district moves the rent far more than any other single decision a tenant makes, and it moves it by hundreds of rials a month, which is why the rest of this guide starts from the district and works down to the unit.

What the averages leave out

A district average is not the rent of a particular flat, for four reasons. Size: an average over studios, one-bedrooms and large two-bedrooms hides a range of 60 to 150 square metres. Age and building: a new tower with a pool and a gym rents differently from an older block without a lift. Furnishing: the Savills guide prices later in this article show a furnished compound house renting 43% above an otherwise identical unfurnished one. Lease terms: whether the quoted rent includes electricity, water, internet or a parking space changes the effective cost. When a landlord’s quote is far from the district figure, the first thing to compare is the floor area, then the furnishing, then the bills.

Rent in Oman for Studios and One-Bedroom Flats

The lowest rents in Muscat are for studios and one-bedroom flats in the older residential districts. The only dated, itemised source for September 2026 is a sample of asking rents compiled by Muscat Gates, a Muscat real estate company, from listings it collected between 10 and 16 September 2026 on a social-media marketplace. The company states that these are asking rents, not agreed rents, and that condition, furnishing and included bills vary. The table reproduces the bands it reports.

Two features of this table are worth drawing out. The studio and one-bedroom bands in Al Khuwair, Al Ghubrah and Qurum overlap heavily at roughly OMR 130 to 330, so within the central districts the unit matters more than the district. And the two ITC communities, Al Mouj and Muscat Hills, start where the older districts end: the lowest asking rent in the ITC row, OMR 450, is above the top of the Al Khuwair studio band (OMR 200) and higher than the top of the Qurum band (OMR 310). The Seeb districts of Al Mabela and Al Mawaleh, and Al Amerat, are the cheapest two-bedroom rows, at OMR 175 to 240.

Crowd-sourced benchmarks give a second view of the same segment. Numbeo, which aggregates user-submitted prices, showed on 21 October 2026 an average of OMR 261.80 ($680) for a one-bedroom flat in the centre of Muscat (range OMR 220 to 306) and OMR 174.22 ($450) outside the centre (range OMR 125 to 219). Its three-bedroom averages were OMR 506.67 ($1,320) in the centre and OMR 315.33 ($820) outside. The page reports 61 contributors for the city across 12 months, which is a modest sample, so treat the figures as an indication that sits within the bands above.

For a single person the practical range for a furnished one-bedroom flat in a central district is therefore about OMR 200 to 330 ($520 to $860) a month, with studios from about OMR 130. Our cost of living in Oman guide places those rents beside school fees, transport and food, which are not repeated here.

Property in Oman for Rent: Flats in Al Mouj, Muscat Hills and Qurum

The Integrated Tourism Complexes (ITCs) are the planned communities where foreigners can own freehold, and they are also where the larger, newer rental stock sits. Savills runs a rental listing search for Oman; on 25 October 2026 it showed 68 flats and 105 properties of all types for rent. The first page of flats, with guide prices per month, is a useful snapshot of the ITC end of the market. The rent per square metre column is simple division of the listed rent by the listed area.

Four things stand out. First, the rent per square metre inside Al Mouj sits in a band of OMR 5.60 to 7.75 a month, so a flat of 125 square metres at OMR 700 and one of 200 square metres at OMR 1,300 are priced on much the same footing. Second, the Muscat Hills flat in the same table, a furnished two-bedroom at The Links, is listed at OMR 450 for 95 square metres, or OMR 4.74 per square metre, below every Al Mouj row. Third, the guide rent for a two-bedroom flat in Al Mouj ranges from OMR 700 to OMR 1,100 in this one page of listings, which brackets the Savills Q1 average of OMR 710 and the Hamptons asking figure of about OMR 650 and shows that the flat’s size and building matter as much as the district. Fourth, guide prices are what an agent asks for; the rent that is signed can be lower.

Savills’ wider listing page also shows ordinary Muscat districts, for comparison: a two-bedroom unfurnished flat in Azaiba at OMR 350 ($910), a two-bedroom flat in Ghala at OMR 370 ($960), a one-bedroom flat in Ghala at OMR 300 ($780), a three-bedroom unfurnished flat in Muscat Hills at OMR 600 ($1,560), and furnished flats at Al Fardhan Heights at OMR 500 for one bedroom, OMR 600 for two and OMR 700 for three. Those are guide prices for single units.

Communities that have tenants today and communities that do not yet

Not every project in the ITC end of the market has completed homes. Al Mouj and Muscat Hills have flats and villas to rent now, which is why they appear in the Savills and Hamptons data. Several projects described on our site have developer handover targets in the future and therefore have no rental history: for example, the developer’s target for Golf Hills in Muscat Hills is Q4 2028 per our Golf Hills listing page, and the target for Alef Qurum Residence is Q2 2029 per our Alef Qurum Residence page. A district average is therefore an average of the completed stock, and a new building may be priced above it when it first lets. Our guides to Al Mouj, Muscat Hills and Muscat Bay describe what each community contains; they are not rental price lists.

Oman House Rent Price: Villas and Compounds

A villa is a detached or semi-detached house with its own entrance and usually a garden; a compound is a gated group of houses with shared facilities such as a pool, a gym and security; a twin villa is two houses sharing a wall. In Muscat the house market is dominated by four- to six-bedroom units, and the rent depends on district, plot, whether the house is inside a compound, and furnishing.

Savills publishes average monthly rents for four-bedroom villas in three districts. The table gives the first-quarter figures and, where Savills’ second-quarter coverage reports one, the later figure.

For a reference point a year earlier, the Savills report for the second quarter of 2025, published on 31 July 2025, gave the Al Mouj four-bedroom villa rent as OMR 1,400 ($3,640). The Q4 2025 report, published on 21 January 2026, said Al Mouj four-bedroom villa rents had risen 15% on the quarter. Reading the series together, Al Mouj villa rents moved from OMR 1,400 in mid-2025 to OMR 1,770 in early 2026 and OMR 1,700 in mid-2026 (the last two are different quarters’ averages, a fall of 4.0% from 1,770 to 1,700). The Muscat Hills 25% rise shows how volatile an average can be when the sample of houses is small: a handful of new lets can move it.

Savills’ listing page for properties to rent gives guide prices for individual houses on 25 October 2026, which show the range beneath the averages.

The spread is wide: a four-bedroom house in Azaiba with a maid’s room at OMR 650 and a three-bedroom villa in Shatti Al Qurum at OMR 2,500 are both described as villas. The difference is location and plot, not bedrooms. Where the area is listed, the five-bedroom villa in Al Mouj (534 square metres, OMR 2,200) works out at OMR 4.12 per square metre a month and the five-bedroom villa in Muscat Hills (525 square metres, OMR 1,900) at OMR 3.62, both below the OMR 5.60 to 7.75 range for Al Mouj flats, so a large house costs less per square metre than a flat in the same community, although the total rent is higher.

The agency sample from Muscat Gates adds the lower end of the house market: asking rents of OMR 450 to 600 ($1,170 to $1,560) for a four-bedroom villa in Al Ghubrah North and OMR 450 to 550 ($1,170 to $1,430) for a family house or large villa in Al Mabela and Al Mawaleh in Seeb, and about OMR 950 ($2,470) for a three-bedroom townhouse in Al Mouj. Those are asking rents from one week of listings in September 2026.

Furnished against unfurnished

Furnished and unfurnished rents in Oman are not a fixed percentage apart, and the listings show why. The two compound houses in the table are the same size (230 square metres, four bedrooms) and differ only in furnishing: OMR 2,000 furnished against OMR 1,400 unfurnished, a difference of OMR 600 a month, or 43% (600 divided by 1,400). Among the flats, a furnished one-bedroom at Almeria South (93 square metres, OMR 550) is only 10% above an unfurnished one-bedroom in Luban or The Gardens (77 to 80 square metres, OMR 500), and the Almeria flat is larger, so the furnishing difference there is small or absent. In practice, furnished in Oman often means beds, white goods and basic furniture rather than a fully equipped home, and the lease should list the inventory.

For a short stay the arithmetic favours furnished: a contract for one year with OMR 600 of annual furniture cost is cheaper than buying and later selling furniture. For a stay of three or more years an unfurnished flat and your own furniture tends to cost less over time, though that depends on shipping or local purchase costs that this guide does not price. Our guide on villa vs apartment in Oman compares the two property types by size, price and service charge.

Rent in Oman Outside Muscat: Salalah, Sohar and Other Cities

Outside the capital region there is no agency report that publishes district rents, so the available figures are thinner. The nearest dated source is Numbeo, a crowd-sourced database, whose pages for the cities were last updated in October 2026. The sample sizes are small, and the table says so, because a figure built on six contributors is a pointer and not a market average.

Read as ratios against Muscat, the Sohar one-bedroom in the centre (OMR 190) is 27% below the Muscat figure (190 divided by 261.80 is 0.73), and the Sohar three-bedroom in the centre (OMR 312.50) is 38% below (312.50 divided by 506.67 is 0.62). The Salalah three-bedroom in the centre (OMR 243.33) is 52% below the Muscat figure. The direction is consistent with the pattern in our cost of living guide, which describes Sohar as cheaper than Muscat and Salalah cheaper still. The Salalah one-bedroom figures rest on a handful of entries and should not be used as a quote.

Salalah and the Khareef

Salalah has a seasonal rental market that the annual averages do not capture. The Khareef, the monsoon season in Dhofar that runs from about late June to late September, brings domestic and Gulf visitors who rent by the night or by the week. The Oman Observer reported on 8 July 2026 that visitors were shifting toward newer buildings and serviced-style units, naming Al Saada and Awqad as areas where newer buildings draw demand, and quoted a Dhofar real estate office owner who said visitors focus mainly on location. The article gave no rent figures. For a tenant, the practical point is that a landlord with a furnished flat may prefer short seasonal lets in summer, so a long lease for a furnished unit in peak season can be harder to agree. Our guide to the Khareef season and Salalah property covers that market from the owner’s side, and the comparison of Muscat and Salalah sets the two cities side by side.

Sohar, Duqm and Nizwa

Sohar is an industrial port and free-zone city, and its rental demand follows employment there; the Numbeo sample above is the only itemised source, and our Sohar real estate guide describes the port economy. Duqm is a special economic zone, and our Duqm guide explains how the zone works. For these smaller cities the sensible approach is to ask the employer or the zone authority what housing is provided, and to check the actual lease against the legal rules described below, which apply nationwide.

Is Rent in Oman Rising or Falling?

Rent in Oman has been broadly flat in the official consumer price statistics and mixed in the agency series. The official measure is the NCSI consumer price index. In September 2026 the group covering housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 0.1% on a year earlier while the all-items index rose 3.2%, as the Times of Oman reported on 17 October 2026. In May 2026 the all-items figure was 3.8% for the Sultanate and 4.2% for Muscat Governorate, according to the NCSI May 2026 report, which also states that rent data are collected from a sample of 1,509 rented units. The housing group mixes rent with electricity, water and fuels, so a 0.1% change is context and not a rent series, but it says housing-related costs in total were close to unchanged over the twelve months.

The Savills series gives more texture for the districts it tracks. The table collects every published data point found for Al Mouj, the district with the longest published record.

The Al Mouj two-bedroom average was OMR 709 in mid-2025 and OMR 710 in the first quarter of 2026, a rise of OMR 1, or 0.1%, over three quarters, so the two-bedroom level was effectively unchanged across that stretch. The second-quarter figure of OMR 664 is reported as the average apartment rent and the coverage does not say it is for two bedrooms, so the two numbers are not directly comparable and the gap between them (a fall of 6.5% if they were) should not be read as a trend. The villa series is more volatile, from OMR 1,400 to 1,770 to 1,700.

Elsewhere Savills’ second-quarter coverage reports that Qurum apartment rents rose 16% and Madinat Sultan Qaboos four-bedroom villa rents rose 22%, and Savills’ own summary page says Qurum and Al Khuwair recorded apartment rental growth. The coverage gives no base level for those rises, so it is not possible to turn them into a rial figure, and they follow a first quarter in which Qurum was stable at OMR 350 and Al Khuwair declined. Percentages from a small base move a lot, and one quarter is not a trend.

Rent and the sale-price index are different things

NCSI also publishes a real estate price index. For the second quarter of 2026 the Times of Oman reported on 19 September 2026 that the residential index was up 24.6% on a year earlier, with apartments up 17.2% and villas up 10.8%, and that residential land in Muscat rose 40.6%. Those are changes in the prices at which property was registered, including land. They are not rents, and they do not tell a tenant what the next lease will cost. The two series can move apart for long periods because rents depend on the number of tenants and the supply of homes to let, while prices depend on what buyers pay for the title.

Oman Tenancy Law: Rent Increases, Notice and Disputes

Residential tenancies in Oman are governed by Royal Decree 6/89, which regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants of residential, commercial and industrial premises. It was amended by Royal Decree 72/08 in 2008 and again by Royal Decree 12/2025. The summary below states what the law firms and the decree text report; a tenant with a dispute should rely on the Arabic text published in the Official Gazette and on a qualified Omani lawyer.

Royal Decree 12/2025 was issued on 7 January 2025, published in Official Gazette No. 1579 on 13 January 2025 and, according to CMS Law, took effect on 13 July 2025, six months after publication. Cases filed before that date remain with the ordinary courts. The decree provides for electronic filing and for notices by email or text message, and the committee’s decisions cannot be appealed. The summaries available for the 2025 decree describe the change in who hears disputes and how fast; they do not report a change to the three-year freeze, the 7% ceiling or the four-year protection, which are the rules reported for the 2008 amendment.

A worked example of the increase rule

Suppose a tenant signs a first lease on a Qurum two-bedroom flat at OMR 350 ($910) a month. Under the rule as reported, the landlord cannot raise the rent in the first three years. When the three years end, the increase may not exceed 7% a year, so the highest rent for the following year is 350 times 1.07, or OMR 374.50 ($970). The saving against an unrestricted market is the tenant’s protection when the market rises; the cost is that a landlord who expects a rise may price the first lease higher. The rule also works the other way: if the district average falls, the lease rent does not fall automatically, and the tenant must negotiate at renewal.

Four practical consequences follow. Keep the registered lease, because the protections depend on it. Put the renewal and notice terms in writing. Read the clause on early termination, because the lease sets what a tenant who leaves mid-term owes. And keep dated photographs of the unit at move-in and move-out, so that any later claim against the deposit can be checked against a record.

Lease Registration and the 3% Tax on Rent in Oman

Every lease in Muscat has to be registered with Muscat Municipality, and the registration carries a fixed tax of 3% of the rent. The Oman Observer reported on 15 February 2022 that the landlord is obliged to register and pay the 3%, that registration, renewal and payment must be completed within one month of signing or of expiry and renewal, and that failure to register carries a fine of three times the tax and leaves the agreement legally void before any government body. An Oman Observer report of 27 January 2021 added that unregistered agreements were being referred to the Public Prosecution, with a fine of OMR 50 to 5,000, a jail term of 24 hours to six months, or both, and recorded that the fee had been cut from 5% to 3% at the end of 2020.

The arithmetic is simple. For a lease at OMR 250 a month the rent for the contract period is 250 times 12, or OMR 3,000 ($7,800), and 3% of it is OMR 90 ($230). For OMR 700 a month the contract rent is OMR 8,400 ($21,850) and the tax is OMR 252 ($660). Muscat Gates’ 2026 guide gives the same example: a 12-month lease at OMR 250 a month carries a fee of OMR 90. The municipality moved registration online in January 2024, when Muscat Daily reported that the service had opened first for new residential leases between individuals, and the guides describe registration through the municipality portal, the Baladiyeti app or an authorised Sanad centre.

Who pays the 3%

By default the landlord pays. The law lets the parties agree otherwise, and our own guide to renting out an Oman property from abroad notes that practice varies and that the lease should say who bears it. For a tenant the useful question is whether the quoted rent already includes the cost. Where the landlord pays, the 3% is part of the cost the rent has to cover; where the tenant pays, the tenant should add 3% of the annual rent to the first-year cost. The day-one table below shows both.

Why registration matters to a tenant

Registration is not a formality for a tenant. The Nama electricity supply FAQ says that a tenant who wants an account in their own name needs a tenancy agreement attested by the municipality and a copy of the ID, and that the same attested agreement is what lets the tenant qualify for the Basic Account Tariff. The Oman Observer’s report of April 2021 on the value added tax guide also makes the residential rent exemption depend on the contract being registered with the competent authority and running for at least three months. And the Observer’s 2022 report says an unregistered agreement is not recognised by any government body. In short, a lease that is not registered can leave the tenant without a utility account, without legal standing in a dispute and with a landlord in breach of the law.

Deposits, Advance Payments and What to Check Before Signing

Deposit and payment terms are set by the lease. Published expat guides, including Expat Focus, describe a security deposit of roughly one to two months’ rent, rent paid annually or in a small number of instalments by post-dated cheques, and a landlord who holds the deposit directly. They give different figures, which is consistent with a market where each landlord sets terms. Muscat Gates’ guide states no standard and advises agreeing in writing the amount of the deposit, the conditions for deductions and the refund timeline, and says that monthly rent is only one of the lease options.

The day-one cash a tenant needs is the first instalment of rent, the deposit, and any registration share. The table works through a flat at OMR 350 a month, the Savills Qurum average, under two payment patterns. The one-month deposit is an assumption chosen within the reported range.

The difference between the two payment patterns is OMR 2,100 of cash on day one, which is half a year of rent. For a tenant arriving on an employer’s contract, a salary advance or a housing allowance often covers this; the point of the table is to make the number visible before a lease is signed.

A checklist for viewing and signing

• Ask whether the person offering the flat is the owner or a manager with written authority, and whether a broker is acting for the owner; Muscat Gates’ guide gives this as its first check. Our guide to real estate agents in Oman explains licensing and who pays a commission.
• Confirm in writing which bills are included, whether electricity has a cap, whose name the electricity and water accounts are in, and how many air conditioning units the unit has, because summer bills depend on them.
• Confirm the lease will be registered with the municipality within the month, and who pays the 3%.
• Agree the deposit amount, the deductions allowed and the refund date in the lease itself.
• Check the furniture and fittings against an inventory signed by both sides, and photograph the condition with the date.
• Read the renewal, early termination and notice clauses against the three-month notice rule described above.

Utilities in Oman: Who Pays What Besides the Rent

The rent normally covers the use of the property, not the electricity, water and sewage used in it. Those are billed to the account holder. The Authority for Public Services Regulation (APSR) sets the residential electricity tariff, which for the Basic account has been 14 baisa per kilowatt-hour up to 4,000 kWh a month, 18 baisa from 4,001 to 6,000 kWh and 32 baisa above 6,000 kWh since 1 January 2025 under Decision 44/2024 (a baisa is one-thousandth of a rial). For an additional account, the rates are 22, 26 and 32 baisa. In summer 2026 APSR cut residential bills for a single basic account by 15%, 10% and 5% across the three bands in May and by 20%, 15% and 10% from June to August, and ordered no disconnections in that period. Nama Water Services lists a residential water tariff of OMR 0.770 for non-citizens, a sewage fee of OMR 2.100 a month and a wastewater tariff of OMR 0.154. Our guide to electricity and water bills in Oman works through those tariffs with sample bills.

The service charge deserves one sentence of explanation, because it appears in the ITC communities. It is an annual charge on the owner for the shared facilities of a community or building, which a landlord may take into account when setting the rent; the owner’s side of that cost is set out in our guide to service charges in Oman real estate. A tenant normally does not receive that bill, but a lease that says the tenant pays the service charge should be read carefully.

Monthly Housing Budgets for Rent in Oman: Single Expat and Family

A monthly housing budget for rent in Oman has three parts: the rent, the utilities and the share of any registration tax the lease puts on the tenant. The table builds three illustrative budgets from the figures above. The rents are inside the published ranges (a furnished one-bedroom in the Al Khuwair band, the Savills guide price for a three-bedroom flat in Muscat Hills and the Savills guide price for a four-bedroom villa in Azaiba). The monthly kilowatt-hour figures and the water bills are assumptions chosen for illustration, not measurements, and should be replaced with the readings on a real bill.

The villa electricity line shows how the bands work. A month of 4,500 kWh on a basic account costs 4,000 kWh at 14 baisa, which is OMR 56.00, plus 500 kWh at 18 baisa, which is OMR 9.00, for OMR 65.00 in total. The 20% summer discount that applied from June to August 2026 would take roughly OMR 12 to 13 off that bill, but the discount applied to 2026 only and nothing in the notice promises it for later years. In the mild-month column the utilities add about 8.5% to the single tenant’s rent (21.20 on 250), 6.1% to the flat (36.80 on 600) and 8.5% to the villa (55.20 on 650); in a peak summer month the villa’s electricity and water rise to OMR 95, or 14.6% of the rent. The rent decides the budget and the bills adjust it.

The budgets leave out groceries, transport, internet, health insurance and school fees, which together are larger than the housing line for a family with children. The cost of living in Oman guide prices those, and the guide to international schools in Muscat shows how school location interacts with the choice of district. If a family is choosing between districts, the guide to areas of Muscat describes what each district is like to live in.

Renting or Owning in an ITC Community: The Rent-to-Price Arithmetic

A tenant sometimes asks what a flat in a freehold community would cost to own against what the district charges in rent. The question can be answered only as arithmetic, because the future rent of a flat that has not been built is unknown. The table divides the annual rent implied by the published district figures by the entry price on two of our listing pages, as at 25 October 2026. It is a gross ratio before any cost, it is not a return, and it applies only to a unit that is let at the district average.

Two cautions keep the table honest. The Alef flat is 88.25 square metres, smaller than a typical district two-bedroom, so a district average probably overstates what a unit of that size would rent for, and the 6.5% to 8.3% is a ceiling and not an estimate. And the service charge is a cost the owner carries: for Bellevue the figure of about OMR 1,140 a year is 13.4% of the OMR 8,520 rent (1,140 divided by 8,520), and for Alef the OMR 441 is 10.5% of the OMR 4,200 rent. Neither property has been handed over, so neither has a rent history. The developers behind these communities are profiled in the Oman developers directory. Our guides to rental yields in Oman and rent vs buy in Oman carry the full cost arithmetic and the break-even maths, and they are the place for the question of whether to buy; this guide only shows what the rent side looks like.

Residency does not follow a tenancy

A tenancy does not give residency by itself. A tenant living in Oman does so on an employment, investor or family visa. The property-linked routes require ownership: the Owner Visa under Royal Oman Police Decision 87/2026 is tied to owning property and has no minimum value, and the Golden Residency requires a single Integrated Tourism Complex property worth at least OMR 200,000 ($520,200), decided by the Royal Oman Police. Our guide to Golden Residency and the Owner Visa explains both.

Income tax from 2028 and what it changes for tenants and landlords

Royal Decree 56/2025 introduces Oman’s first personal income tax on 1 January 2028, at 5% of income above OMR 42,000 ($109,234) a year. EY’s alert lists leasing among the taxable income sources and says related expenses are deductible, so a landlord’s rent is income from 2028. A tenant paying rent is not taxed on the payment. Whether landlords pass any cost to rents is a market question that no source answers, and nothing here predicts it. The landlord side is covered in our guide to property tax in Oman.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is rent in Oman per month?

Rent in Oman in Muscat runs from about OMR 130 to 330 ($340 to $860) for a studio or one-bedroom flat in the older districts, from OMR 350 ($910) in Qurum to OMR 710 ($1,850) in Al Mouj for a two-bedroom flat, and from about OMR 450 ($1,170) to more than OMR 2,000 ($5,200) for a villa. The sources are Savills for Q1 2026, Hamptons for H1 2026 and an agency sample of September 2026 asking rents.

What is the average rent for a two-bedroom flat in Muscat?

There is no single average for rent in Oman at district level. Savills reported OMR 350 in Qurum, OMR 385 in Al Khuwair, OMR 491 in Muscat Hills and OMR 710 in Al Mouj for Q1 2026. Hamptons found asking rents of about OMR 650 in Al Mouj, OMR 450 in Muscat Hills, Qurum and Madinat Sultan Qaboos, and OMR 250 in Al Khuwair and Al Ghubra for H1 2026.

What is the Oman house rent price for a villa?

House rent in Oman is highest on the coast. Savills put the average four-bedroom villa rent at OMR 1,770 ($4,600) in Al Mouj, OMR 1,200 ($3,120) in Muscat Hills and OMR 908 ($2,360) in Madinat Sultan Qaboos in Q1 2026, with Al Mouj at OMR 1,700 ($4,420) in Q2. Individual guide prices on 25 October 2026 ranged from OMR 650 for a four-bedroom house in Azaiba to OMR 2,500 for a villa in Shatti Al Qurum.

Is rent in Oman cheaper in Salalah and Sohar than in Muscat?

The figures point that way, and rent in Oman falls as you leave the capital. Numbeo showed a three-bedroom flat in the centre at OMR 312.50 in Sohar and OMR 243.33 in Salalah against OMR 506.67 in Muscat, which is 38% and 52% lower, but the Sohar and Salalah samples are small (9 and 6 contributors), so treat them as an indication.

Is rent in Oman paid monthly or yearly?

Rent in Oman is usually contracted for a year, and expat guides describe payment of the year’s rent in advance or in a few instalments by post-dated cheques. Monthly payment exists, and Muscat Gates lists monthly rent as one of the lease options. The payment schedule is a term of the lease, so agree it in writing before signing.

How much deposit do I pay for rent in Oman?

The deposit on rent in Oman is described in published guides as about one to two months’ rent, but the amount, the deductions and the refund timeline are set by the lease. Agree all three in writing. For a OMR 350 flat a one-month deposit is OMR 350 ($910), which together with a year’s rent paid in advance makes OMR 4,550 ($11,830) of cash on day one.

Can a landlord raise the rent in Oman?

Rent in Oman can rise only within limits. Under Royal Decree 6/89 as amended in 2008, as summarised by Curtis, a landlord cannot raise the rent for three years from the start of the lease or the last increase, and after that the increase is capped at 7% a year. A rent of OMR 350 could therefore rise to at most OMR 374.50 in the first year after the freeze. A landlord may also adjust rent for improvements the tenant requested.

Does a rental contract have to be registered, and who pays the 3%?

Yes. In Muscat the landlord registers the lease with the municipality and pays a fixed 3% tax within one month, with a fine of three times the tax for failure, according to the Oman Observer in 2022. The parties may agree that the tenant bears it. On a OMR 250 monthly lease the tax is OMR 90 ($230). A registered lease is also what the Nama electricity page asks of a tenant opening an account.

Is rent in Oman subject to VAT or income tax?

Residential rent in Oman is exempt from VAT when the lease is registered and runs for at least three months, according to the Oman Observer in April 2021 and Deloitte’s summary of the Tax Authority guide. A tenant pays no tax on rent. For landlords, Royal Decree 56/2025 makes leasing income taxable at 5% above OMR 42,000 a year from 1 January 2028, per EY.

Where do I settle a dispute with a landlord over rent in Oman?

A dispute over rent in Oman goes to a committee, not first to a court. Royal Decree 12/2025, in force since 13 July 2025, sends lease disputes, including eviction requests, to a Rental Disputes Settlement Committee in each governorate. Per CMS Law, a case goes to the committee within seven days, the committee decides within 90 days, and its decision is final. Lawsuits filed before 13 July 2025 stay with the courts.

Are utilities included in the rent in Oman?

Usually not, but it varies by listing. Some studios are advertised with bills included, and Muscat Gates advises checking which bills are included, whether electricity has a cap and whose name the accounts are in. Where bills are not included, the Basic electricity tariff is 14 baisa per kWh up to 4,000 kWh a month, so 1,500 kWh costs OMR 21.00.

Does renting in Oman give me residency?

No. A tenancy has no residency attached. Property-linked routes need ownership: the Owner Visa under ROP Decision 87/2026 has no minimum value, and the Golden Residency needs a single Integrated Tourism Complex property worth at least OMR 200,000.

Last checked: 25 October 2026. Sources: Savills Oman Q1 2026; Savills Oman Q2 2026; Savills Oman Q2 2025; Savills Oman Q4 2025; Oman Observer on the Q2 2026 report; Oman Observer on the Hamptons H1 2026 report; Savills Oman flats to rent; Savills Oman property to rent; Muscat Gates renting guide; Numbeo Muscat, Sohar and Salalah; Times of Oman on September 2026 inflation; NCSI consumer price report, May 2026; Times of Oman on the Q2 2026 property price index; Curtis on Royal Decree 72/08; Curtis on Omani tenancy law; CMS Law on the 2025 amendments; decree.om, Royal Decree 12/2025; Oman Observer on lease registration, 2022; Oman Observer on unregistered leases, 2021; Muscat Daily on online registration; Oman Observer on VAT-exempt residential rent; Deloitte on the real estate VAT guide; EY on Oman personal income tax; Nama Electricity Supply FAQ; Nama Water Services tariffs; Oman Observer on the 2025 electricity tariffs; Oman Observer on the summer 2026 tariff cut; Oman Observer on Khareef housing; Expat Focus.