Bahrain to tender for ‘airport city’ in early 2025

Alamy/Matyas Rehak

• Feasibility study completed
• Plans now with government
• Concerns about residential demand

Bahrain will issue tenders early next year to build a new “airport city” based around the existing Bahrain International Airport.

The project will include commercial and residential development, according to Mohamed Yousif AlBinfalah, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company.

“We have a significant amount of space that will be coming to the market soon for development,” he said.

AlBinfalah said a feasibility study for the project has been completed and plans are currently going through a government approval process, expected to conclude by the end of this year.

He said tenders will be issued to private developers during the first quarter of next year.

“We don’t have the luxury of a continuous stretch or plot of land. Nevertheless, we have enough spaces that when put together will constitute an airport city,” he said.

However a real estate expert has warned over an imbalance of residential supply and demand in Bahrain. It has a population of 1.6 million, only around half of whom are nationals, which could weigh on prices as non-national investors can also buy freeholds in limited areas of Bahrain.

In its H1 2024 report, CBRE Middle East estimated that freehold apartment stock available to international investors currently stands at over 19,000 units. An additional 1,361 units are expected to enter the market by the end of the year.

Samantha Schiffman, senior analyst in Bahrain for CBRE Middle East, said in the report that without a substantial increase in demand, there is likely to be downward pressure on apartment prices

“Residential market performance has been mixed in H1, consistent with the significant existing and pipeline supply in the market,” she said.

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Earlier this month Bahrain’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning announced a proposal to develop up to 3,000 residential units and infrastructure at Madinat Khalifa totalling over 1.6 million square metres.

Beyon, a Bahraini tech conglomerate, signed a memorandum of understanding with infrastructure consultancy Aecom for the master planning of a 380,000 square metre Digital City project, located at Hamala in the northwest of the main island.

Bahrain Real Estate Investment Company (Edamah), the real estate arm of Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, will manage the development of the mixed-use project.

AlBinfalah told AGBI at the Bahrain International Airshow that a site had been chosen to build a new airport on reclaimed land in the north west of the country, which could open by the end of the next decade.