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Construction

Construction news, real estate, property, and infrastructure news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis on the construction market.

Construction overview

Construction news

Qiddiya's launch celebration. The leisure city is to absorb the enterainment company Seven

PIF merges companies in sign of giga-project shake-up

The Saudi sports and leisure city Qiddiya said on Tuesday it would absorb the entertainment company Seven. It is the first sign of a possible shake-up of Public Investment Fund giga-projects as they struggle to meet deadlines amid rising costs and budget deficits.  Doubts have arisen about the future of some of the projects after […]

Dubai’s Emaar sets quarterly sales record of $3.7bn

Dubai-listed Emaar Properties reported its highest-ever quarterly sales, driven by sustained real estate demand in the emirate. Sales surged 47 percent year on year to AED13.5 billion ($3.7 billion), the developer said in a statement. Despite a 9 percent decline in net profit year on year to nearly AED3 billion, net profit before tax rose 16 percent […]

The Kuwait Boursa trading hall in Kuwait city. BIG shares will list in the premier market segment

Kuwait’s Beyout Investment Group to list on local bourse 

Kuwait’s Beyout Investment Group (BIG) has announced plans to offer a 30 percent stake on the local bourse, the first in nearly two years. The final offering price will be determined through a bookbuilding process, which will be held from May 19 to 23, the company said in a statement.  The shares are slated to […]

Amit Arora the new CEO of Arada, says 'we are seeing a diverse group of investors and residents that want to buy in our communities'

Overseas buyers dominate in Sharjah’s reformed real estate

Overseas buyers in Arada’s two mega-developments in Sharjah have vastly outnumbered locals in the year-and-a-half since the emirate expanded full real estate ownership rights to non-GCC nationals. From when Aljada, Sharjah’s biggest mixed-use project, launched in 2017 until the land reform of late October 2022, Emirati nationals bought more than 63 percent of the value […]

Israel Lebanon damage

Israeli bombardment costs Lebanon at least $1.5bn

Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7 has caused more than $1.5 billion of damage to buildings and infrastructure, the country’s Southern Council says. The president of the council, Hicham Haidar, told AGBI that damage to residential and commercial buildings stands at $1 billion, with 1,700 buildings destroyed […]

Dubai Lifestyle City as it was meant to look. Two different developers failed to complete the project

Plots from failed Dubai Lifestyle City project up for auction

Plots of land from a never-completed AED2.4 billion ($650 million) development in Dubai, once endorsed by tennis star Maria Sharapova, have been put up for auction. The abandoned Dubai Lifestyle City project was announced in 2007 by developer ETA Star Projects, a division of the ETA-Ascon business group. It promised buyers “high style living” in […]

Investors at the Dubai Financial Market. Drake & Scull was suspended from trading in 2018

Drake & Scull losses narrow before return to trading

Dubai contractor Drake & Scull International has trimmed its losses in the first quarter of this year as it nears the end of a drawn-out capital restructuring process. The Dubai-based utilities and infrastructure engineering company said in a press release accompanying disclosures to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) that revenue jumped 55 percent year on […]

Jaumur Neom resort gulf of Aqaba

Neom announces superyacht resort on Gulf of Aqaba

Plans to build a high-end resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba aimed at the luxury yacht community have been announced by Neom, despite rising doubts about Saudi Arabia’s ability to maintain funding lines for the country’s giga-projects.  The new project, Jaumur, was described by Neom as an “exclusive residential community set around an inspiring […]

Emirates Global and Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development plan to develop a factory that can produce electric buses and trucks

Deal signed to build electric bus factory in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is planning a factory to manufacture and build electric buses and trucks. The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development has signed an agreement with Emirates Global Industries, part of Alfahim Group, for the project. The agreement also includes plans to establish manufacturing facilities to meet the anticipated growth in demand for energy storage […]

A pilgrim prays during a visit to Mount Al-Noor in the holy city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia is building an additional 320,000 hotel rooms by 2030

Pilgrims remain bedrock of Saudi tourism plans

Saudi tourism is to undergo a massive expansion with religious travellers remaining its bedrock – but some hotel operators are wary of an overheated market. The kingdom is aiming to bring in 150 million visitors per year by 2030, with tourism accounting for 10 percent of non-oil GDP, playing a key role in its economic […]

An artist's impression of the surf lagoon being built at Aquarabia in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia

Largest water park in Middle East to open in Qiddiya next year

The largest water theme park in the Middle East is on target to open in the city of Qiddiya next year, its developer has announced. Aquarabia, the first water park in Saudi Arabia, will have four record holders among its 22 rides, including the world’s tallest “water coaster” and tallest water slide. It will also […]

Freight trains on the Oman-UAE rail network will reach 120 km per hour, while passenger trains will reach 200 km per hour

Work to start on $3bn Oman-UAE rail network

Work will soon start on the $3 billion Hafeet Rail, a railway network between Oman and the UAE, local media has reported. The railway line will include two 2.5 km long tunnels and 36 bridges, Oman Daily Observer reported, citing Abdul Al Hatmi, CEO of Asyad Group. Oman Rail, part of Asyad Group, and the UAE’s Etihad […]

Sora Beach Residences on Al Marjan Island will span a built-up area of 1.8 million square feet

New $1bn Ras Al Khaimah project to have 140-foot arch

A new AED4 billion ($1.1 billion) residential development on Ras Al Khaimah’s man-made archipelago will house a 140-foot-high arch, its developer has said.  Sora Beach Residences on Al Marjan Island is slated to have one the “grandest atriums ever seen in the region”, Dubai-based Aark Developers said in a statement. The 18-floor high project will span […]

Dubai The World Villas

Demand for beach plots sells 80% of The World villas in days

An ultra-luxe villa community planned for Dubai’s The World Islands is more than 80 percent sold only days after first being announced, thanks to the dearth of available beachfront plots in the city. The boutique developer Amali Properties, co-founded by siblings Ali and Amira Sajwani of Damac Properties, said last week that the community will […]

A man moves his belongings from a flooded residential complex in Dubai. It has been reported that only 15% of UAE residents have flood insurance

Flood insurance in Dubai under threat says expert

Insurance companies could opt against covering areas of Dubai that were flooded during last month’s heavy rainfall, according to an expert from the S&P Global Ratings agency. Some areas remain badly affected since the torrential storm wreaked havoc across the emirate over two weeks ago, with record amounts of rain over a 24-hour period. It […]

UAE nuclear energy plant

Second nuclear power plant planned for UAE

A second nuclear power plant is being planned by the UAE, which would double the current number of reactors in the country to eight. The plant will be tendered within a few months and construction could start later this year, to reach operational readiness in 2032, sources told Reuters. The UAE’s energy minister, Suhail Al […]