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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.

Emaar Q3 profit rises 46% to $408m on Dubai property boom

Emaar Properties, Dubai’s biggest listed property company, on Monday posted a 46 percent rise in net profit in the third quarter of 2022 to AED1.5 billion ($408.40 million), beating estimates. Results at Emaar, known for building the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, were boosted after Dubai began its recovery early last year from the […]

Israel to build new desalination plant to meet water shortage

Israel’s IDE Technologies and Bank Hapoalim won a government tender to build a new water desalination plant in northern Israel, Hapoalim said. Hapoalim, one of Israel’s two largest banks, will provide 1.3 billion shekels ($381 million) for the project near the northern city of Nahariya off the Mediterranean coast which aims to help the country […]

Egyptian investors look to real estate to hedge against inflation

Egyptian investors are looking to real estate as a hedge against inflation and a depreciating pound, while landlords are increasingly pricing in US dollars. Merna Arafat, an analyst at Beltone, a Cairo-based brokerage, said that many investors had begun moving into property in March this year when the government started allowing the Egyptian pound to […]

Nakheel secures $4.6bn from Dubai banks to build more islands

Dubai developer Nakheel has secured 17 billion dirhams ($4.63 billion) from local banks for projects including its latest collection of manmade islands, the company said on Tuesday. The state-owned developer best known for Palm Jebel Ali said the financing came from a syndicate of three Dubai lenders: Emirates NBD, Mashreq Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank. […]

Design changes mean Middle East has world’s worst project delays

Construction projects in the Middle East are facing some of the longest delays of any region in the world, with average overruns adding more than 80 percent to timelines, and dispute claims increasing costs by more than a third. Despite the prevalent availability of cash reserves in the region, due to the high oil price […]

Proposals for Bahrain Metro by Spanish consultancy IDOM. The light rail project will be developed by public-private partnership

Private sector urged to step up to build homes, schools and clinics

The GCC’s private sector should carve itself a bigger role in infrastructure delivery, according to Cyril Lincoln, executive vice president and global head of real estate, finance and advisory at Dubai-based Mashreq Bank. There is plenty of work to go around: the region has more than $121 billion of so-called social infrastructure projects planned or […]

Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan plans to list its Dubai subsidiary

Saudi-listed Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company plans to list its Dubai subsidiary on an international stock exchange. In a statement published on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), the developer said it was considering several strategic and capital markets options for its international property business in Dubai, which may include listing. The developer recently completed […]

Saudi exports

Saudi non-oil export orders rise at fastest pace for a year

New export orders for Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector in October increased at their fastest rate for nearly a year, the Riyad Bank Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey revealed on Wednesday.  This demand helped the PMI, which gauges business confidence, to climb 0.6 percentage points to 57.2 in October.  A reading above 50.0 shows […]

Tecom

Rising business occupancy boosts profits for Tecom

Tecom Group, the Dubai-based operator of business parks and free zones, announced today that third quarter revenue rose by 12.5 percent year-on-year, driven by rising occupancy levels. Revenue reached $133.4 million as demand rose across the Tecom portfolio for office, warehouse and worker accommodation. The company, which is owned by the investment vehicle of Dubai’s […]

Egypt’s SODIC offers to buy Orascom Real Estate for $125m

Egyptian property developer SODIC has offered to buy Orascom Real Estate for $125 million, the residential compound builder’s parent company Orascom Development Egypt said on Tuesday. Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties and state holding company ADQ bought a controlling stake in SODIC late last year, and the purchase of Orascom Real Estate would further expand their […]

Building, Water, Vacation

Six Senses sells 75% of branded Dubai units ahead of 2024 debut

The first Six Senses Residences in Dubai is planned for 2024 as the CEO of the global luxury hospitality brand reports demand from affluent and existing UAE residents. Neil Jacobs said the progressing construction of Six Senses Residences The Palm, alongside a 61-room hotel, represents a “new milestone for the brand”.  “The property price growth […]

Buying an apartment is now seen as a more attractive option than paying a landlord

Dubai tenants jump on property ladder as rents soar

Dubai has seen an increase in end-user homeowners as its property market matures and begins to move away from the speculators and flippers of the boom days before 2008. Surging rental rates and expats opting to live in the UAE longer have also made the jump from tenant to homeowner increasingly more attractive, industry experts […]

Dubai revival sees developer Deyaar’s Q3 profit surge 72%

Dubai property developer Deyaar on Thursday reported a surge in third quarter profit while revenues rose 72 percent over the same period on the back of a revival in the emirate’s real estate sector. The company made a profit of AED36.3 million ($9.88 million) in the third quarter from AED8.1m in the same period last […]

The Dubai Land Department reported a property deal worth $163 million on Palm Jumeirah earlier this week

Indian billionaire buys $163m mansion on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah

India’s Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has purchased a luxurious mansion for $163 million (AED 598.72 million) on Palm Jumeirah, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Ambani bought the mansion last week from the family of Kuwaiti tycoon Mohammed Alshaya. The latest villa purchase is close to a $80 million mansion which he […]

Chair, Furniture, Building

Arab buyers eye prime New York properties as Russians exit market

The wealthiest city in the world has seen a sharp rise in interest from Middle Eastern property buyers, replacing the void left from the exodus of super-rich Russians. A spokesperson for real estate firm Knight Frank told AGBI that the number of enquiries for New York property from Middle Eastern customers had increased by 50 […]

Office Building, Building, Architecture

Zain KSA seals transfer of its telecom towers to PIF-led group

Mobile telecommunications company Zain KSA has transferred ownership of its unit Zain Business to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, enabling the sale of its towers infrastructure. PIF has changed the unit’s name to Golden Lattice Investment Company (GLI), the telco said in a statement published on the Saudi exchange, or Tadawul. The sale of 8,069 […]

Trump Dubai
  • EXCLUSIVE

Trump-branded properties in Dubai report 100% growth

Donald Trump may be the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation in the US, but his name is still big business in Dubai, where properties in the Gulf city bearing his brand name have appreciated by nearly 100 percent and continue to command strong demand. The former US president is under multiple probes, including the […]

Railway, Rail, Train Track

Etihad Rail finishes laying tracks in Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah

Etihad Rail, the developer and operator of the UAE national rail network, has completed the tracklaying works of the main line in Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, according to WAM, the UAE state-owned news agency. The work is part of the last package of stage two of the project. The main line extends from Ghuweifat, […]

Dubai property values ‘fairly priced’ despite 30 months of rises

Property prices in Dubai are still fair despite more than two years of increases seen during its “Covid comeback”, according to new research. The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2022 said that despite a “buoyant year”, the market in Dubai is not overpriced. “Dubai’s housing market has been a rollercoaster ride over the past […]

Qatar property

Rents for Qatar tenants soar ahead of World Cup

Tenants in Qatar are losing out in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup as rents soar by nearly a third, with landlords able to secure longer-term leases at higher rates due to a lack of supply in the market. “Residential rents have risen around 30 percent year-on-year,” said Adam Stewart, the recently appointed head […]