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Only two bright spots for real estate transparency in Mena

By Valentina Pasquali
real estate transparency Reem Island Abu Dhabi Reuters
Abu Dhabi was praised in particular for its real estate transparency efforts over the past 18 months
  • UAE and Saudi Arabia climb transparency table
  • Five Mena countries in bottom 20
  • Abu Dhabi ‘accelerates’ transparency push

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia have climbed higher in a biennial ranking of the most transparent real estate markets in the world, as local authorities push to open up their markets in a bid to appeal to foreign investors.

But the UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only bright spots for transparency in the Middle East and North Africa, with six Mena countries in the bottom quartile of the 2024 edition of JLL’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index, which came out this week.

Dubai rose to 28th spot in the index, after topping the Middle Eastern chart since at least 2018. 

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Abu Dhabi has made steady if slow progress, moving from 55 in 2018 to 48 in 2020, 45 two years ago and 41 this year. 

While Dubai is included in the second “transparent” category, the UAE’s capital remains in the third tier’s “semi-transparent” grouping.

The UK, France, US, Australia and Canada again lead the ranking of nearly 100 countries, having dominated the five top spots globally for at least seven years. 

The two emirates were tied in third spot for most improved globally since 2022, after India and Saudi Arabia. The kingdom ranked 38 this year, after being 49 in 2022, 57 in 2020 and 54 in 2018.

However all was not good in other Mena countries, where JLL found “muted” progress and several countries “regressing” in their real estate transparency efforts. 

Morocco was ranked in position 59, Egypt was 61, Bahrain 65, Qatar 68, Jordan and Oman 70 and 71, respectively, Tunisia 76, Lebanon 82 and Iraq last at 89.

JLL, a real estate consultancy, says in the 2024 report: “In the Mena region, Saudi Arabia as well as the UAE markets of Dubai and Abu Dhabi all rank among the top global improvers as they benefit from a government focus on market effectiveness.

“Higher transparency will play a key role in enabling some of the world’s largest urban development projects that are under way in Saudi Arabia.” 

The launch of tech-focused programmes such as the Real Estate Innovation Incubator and the expansion of the digital services available to landlords and tenants through the REST system were among the highlights in Dubai, JLL said.

In the UAE capital, JLL praised the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre and the launch of an AI-based system to speed up the construction permit process.  

Saudi Arabia upgraded its land registration system in November 2023 through the launch of the Real Estate Registry and publicly disseminated online data from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority detailing sales, leases, among other initiatives, according to JLL.

JLL has ranked global real estate markets for the level of transparency they embrace for more than 20 years.

Taimur Khan, its head of research for Mena, praised Abu Dhabi in particular for its real estate transparency push over the past 18 months.

“We’ve started to see quite a depth of data being provided, whether you are looking at sales transactions, mortgage transactions, rental contracts as a whole. We can now see that across Abu Dhabi, and not just Abu Dhabi city but the emirate as a whole,” Khan says. 

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