Video length: 06:07 VIDEO Leisure & Hospitality Qiddiya to host Dragon Ball theme park Qiddiya, the Saudi Arabian entertainment city, plans to build a theme park based on the blockbuster Dragon Ball anime series. The Japanese franchise owner said on March 22 that the 500,000 square metre site would recreate locations from the original print and television cartoon series such as Kame House, Capsule Corporation and Beerus’s Planet, and […] March 22, 2024
Construction Dubai approves PPP projects worth nearly $11bn The Dubai government has approved public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth AED40 billion ($10.89 billion) to boost economic growth and infrastructure development. The new PPP portfolio, managed by the emirate’s finance department, will include a range of projects to boost cooperation and build new collaborations between the public and private sectors, state-run Wam news agency reported. […] March 22, 2024
Video length: 1:51 Giga-projects Three miles of the 100-mile Line city to be built by 2030 Only the first phase of Saudi Arabia’s futuristic 100-mile-long city The Line, covering three miles around a lagoon in the Gulf of Aqaba, will be completed by 2030, a senior official has revealed. The entire project, a horizontal city inside the Neom giga-project in the shape of a straight line 220 yards (200 metres) wide […] March 22, 2024
Analysis Tourism Abu Dhabi’s futuristic vision of an Egyptian metropolis By 2052, Egypt’s Ras El Hekma will be “competing with the most important cities of the world,” according to the new project’s promotional video. Published on February 23, the day the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ bought development rights to this stretch of coastline as part of a $35 billion deal, the video shows […] March 22, 2024
Real Estate Real estate broker licence numbers in Kuwait rise by 17% Almost 230 new licences were issued to land and property sales agents in Kuwait in 2023, bringing the total to 1,594 by the end of December, a 17 percent rise on 2022. Kuwait’s property sector is hoping that a new law allowing foreigners to buy will lead to increased business opportunities. A total of 228 […] March 21, 2024
Real Estate Dubai mortgage holders squeezed by end of low fixed rates Purchasing a home in Dubai for AED2 million ($544,600) in 2021 meant manageable monthly mortgage payments of about AED7,600, at a 2 percent interest rate secured for three years. With these fixed-rate contracts now expiring, home owners have told AGBI that banks are rolling over to rates as high as 7 percent, resulting in monthly […] March 21, 2024
Giga-projects Neom unveils bridge resort with world’s longest infinity pool Saudi Arabia’s main giga-project, Neom, has announced another luxury tourism project, called Treyam, a 450-metre bridge over a lagoon in the Gulf of Aqaba featuring the world’s longest infinity pool and a hotel with glass floors. Publicity material released on March 21 shows the infinity pool along the length of a bridge over two sides […] March 21, 2024
Logistics Investcorp to strengthen US presence with $526m venture Bahrain’s alternative asset manager, Investcorp, has unveiled a new $526 million venture to acquire industrial real estate assets in the United States. The venture has been set up with two unidentified sovereign wealth funds, mirroring a similar strategy launched in November 2021. The three entities have committed over $1 billion of investment over the past […] March 21, 2024
Giga-projects Red Sea Global says first hotels are open Red Sea Global, one of Saudi Arabia’s main giga-projects, said this week it has opened two hotels. Ben Edwards, group head of cost, commercial and procurement, said in a conference call on March 20 that Six Senses and St. Regis hotels had opened at the Red Sea Global site south of the remote town of […] March 20, 2024
Giga-projects Work underway on cube at centre of New Murabba giga-project The company building New Murabba, one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest giga-projects, said this week that construction was underway on the development’s centrepiece: a cubic structure being marketed as “large enough to hold 20 Empire State Buildings”. The New Murabba Development Company, which is owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is charged with creating a […] March 20, 2024
Analysis Banking & Finance Liquidity strain set to push Saudi banks to seek more funds Saudi Arabian banks’ loan books are set to expand faster than their deposits again in 2024, raising costs and pushing lenders to seek additional funding sources. However, the kingdom’s banks are expected to increase their annual profits this year as government-led infrastructure projects and likely cuts to benchmark interest rates boost margins for its two […] March 20, 2024
Construction Sharjah developer launches Syria home-building campaign The Sharjah developer Arada has launched its third annual Ramadan charity campaign, pledging to build homes for displaced families in Syria. For every house sold at Arada’s real estate developments during the holy month, the company will build a home for a Syrian family affected by recent conflict and the February 2023 earthquakes. NewsletterGet the […] March 19, 2024
Banking & Finance Morocco signs $109m loan deal with African bank Morocco has received a loan worth €100 million ($109 million) from the African Development Bank to fund new investment and sustainable infrastructure projects across the country. The loan agreement was signed with Fonds d’Equipement Communal, a bank dedicated to financing investment projects and development programmes in Morocco. Funds will be used to improve public services, […] March 19, 2024
Construction Nobu penthouse shatters Abu Dhabi sales record A three-bed penthouse at Nobu Residences on Saadiyat Island has sold for AED137 million ($37.3 million), fetching the highest price per sq m ever seen in Abu Dhabi, at AED96,000 ($26,137), Aldar Properties has claimed. It comes after the sale of a four-bed duplex sky villa in Nobu Residences for AED130 million, the state-run WAM […] March 19, 2024
Construction Gulf funds investing in Cyprus ‘only a question of time’ Three sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf are in discussions to invest in real estate projects in Cyprus, according to one of the island’s biggest developers. “It’s only a question of time that it is going to happen,” said Pantelis Leptos, co-president of the developer Leptos Estates, without giving further details on the wealth funds […] March 19, 2024
EXCLUSIVE Giga-projects Trojena winter resort aims to be Neom’s inaugural site The Saudi winter resort of Trojena will be completed and ready to open in 2027 ahead of the 2029 Asian Winter Games, a spokesman said this week, making it the first project inside the futuristic city Neom to come online. Developers are under pressure to finish the giga-projects at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s economic […] March 18, 2024
Construction Nakheel and Meydan merge with Dubai Holding Two of Dubai’s largest state-backed developers – Nakheel and Meydan – will merge into Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of Dubai’s Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to create a new global economic entity. Nakheel and Meydan will become part of Dubai Holding under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, with […] March 17, 2024
Infrastructure Lebanon unveils plans to rebuild shattered Beirut port Lebanese companies will lead the multi-million-dollar funding for the rehabilitation of Beirut’s port, which will be based mainly on the revenues that the port has been collecting. Ali Hamieh, the country’s caretaker minister of public works and transport, announced the news on Wednesday. The port was partially destroyed in August 2020 when the detonation of […] March 14, 2024
Trade UAE developer wins $6bn Budapest contract An Emirati developer has finalised a €5.5 billion ($6 billion) deal to transform a rundown area of Budapest in the same week that the UAE and Hungary signed an economic cooperation agreement aimed at improving bilateral trade and investment. Eagle Hills International, which is based in Abu Dhabi, has partnered with the Hungarian government to […] March 14, 2024
Real Estate Super-rich Muslims seek homes in Saudi holy cities Wealthy Muslims are keen to take advantage of golden residency visas in Saudi Arabia to buy nearly $2 billion of property in Mecca, Medina and Riyadh, according to new research. Just over 500 high-net-worth individuals from nine countries with a sizeable Muslim population – Algeria, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Turkey – […] March 14, 2024
Construction London architect HKS to design Diriyah’s 20,000-seat Arena Saudi Arabia has hired a London-based architecture practice to design a sports and entertainment venue in Riyadh’s historic district of Diriyah, close to the site where a landmark opera house will be built. “The architecture rises from the landscape as a series of monoliths, evoking local geological formations and alluding to ancient Nadji forts and […] March 13, 2024
Renewable Energy XLinks reaffirms UK is priority for Morocco power project British renewable power company Xlinks is “100 percent committed to the UK” despite reports suggesting it was refocusing its attention on Germany. Xlinks is overseeing the $22 billion Morocco-UK renewables project, which involves building solar panel and wind farms in the desert of the North African country. Via the installation of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) […] March 13, 2024
