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Real Estate

Real estate and property news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

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Real Estate news

Lake Park in Abu Dhabi. Aldar, the city's largest developer, says demand is strong for new and existing projects

Abu Dhabi developer Aldar reports $520m first quarter profit

Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest real estate developer, has reported a rise in first-quarter profits driven by sales to international buyers. Net profit after tax increased 22 percent year on year to AED1.9 billion ($520 million). Revenue was up 39 percent to AED7.8 billion. Overseas investors and expatriates living in the UAE accounted for AED7.4 […]

The Willis Building, centre, was designed by architect Norman Foster and was one of the tallest towers in the area when it was built in 2008

Kuwait wealth fund sues over London tower project

Kuwait Investment Authority, the world’s fifth-biggest sovereign wealth fund, is suing global investment company Axa Investment Managers in connection with a planned tower in London’s financial district that risks blocking light to a KIA building. St Martins Property, the investment authority’s property development unit, is suing Hygie, a special purpose vehicle controlled by Axa Investment […]

Approval of Kuwait's residential mortgage law could unleash demand for housing loans

New Kuwait laws will stimulate banks, says Fitch

Kuwait’s approval of a debt law and the easing of housing curbs on foreigners is likely to stimulate banks after a period of subdued activity, according to a US rating agency. Fitch said it expects 8-9 percent growth in 2025 if planned large government projects are awarded, following last month’s approval of the debt law.  […]

The Metropolitan Palace Hotel (formerly the Hilton) in Beirut, owned by UAE billionaire Khalaf Al-Habtoor

Owner plans to cut up and remove five-star hotel from Beirut

UAE billionaire Khalaf Al-Habtoor is considering hiring a Chinese company to deconstruct his five-star hotel in Beirut and move it to another country, following a decision in January to end all investment in Lebanon. Al-Habtoor is considering dividing the 185-room Metropolitan Palace Hotel into pieces and shipping the parts by sea out of Lebanon, possibly […]

Dubai property prices have increased by approximately 70 percent in the last four years

Dubai ad portals exploring IPOs as real estate rises

Dubai-based classified ad portals Dubizzle and Property Finder are both said to be exploring the idea of selling shares to the public in an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Dubizzle is preparing to meet with potential investors and could raise at least $500 million in a possible IPO, the […]

Property deals in Abu Dhabi rose sharply in the first quarter, including foreign investment

Value of Abu Dhabi property deals up by a third in Q1

Abu Dhabi recorded strong real estate activity in the first quarter of 2025 as property deal value grew by around a third annually to AED25 billion ($7 billion) across 6,896 transactions. The value of sales and purchases rose 27 percent to AED15.5 billion, while the volume grew by 11 percent to 3,819, according to the […]

People on the Jeddah waterfront. The Marafy canal will run 10km inland from the coast

Jeddah’s residential canal project takes shape

Construction work on Marafy, a residential canal-waterfront project in Saudi Arabia’s second city, Jeddah, is gathering pace. Driven by Roshn Group, the property developer unit of the government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the development will have capacity to house more than 130,000 people.  Though no cost for the Marafy project has been made public, in […]

RAK sets out $272m plan for ‘our version of Central Park’

Ras Al Khaimah is preparing an AED1 billion ($272 million) mixed-use masterplan to link two of its most prominent waterfront developments – Al Hamra and Al Marjan Island. The project is being led by Marjan, the master developer of freehold properties in the northern emirate, and will have its official launch later this year. “What […]

Khalid bin Kalban, vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Investments, said 'the year ahead is very positive'

Dubai Investments plans IPO before year end, says CEO

Dubai Investments is preparing to sell shares in four subsidiaries to the public and may list one of them before the year end, its CEO Khalid bin Kalban has told AGBI. The government-backed company manages AED22.1 billion ($6 billion) of assets in the UAE and beyond, in sectors including real estate, construction and building materials […]

Oman property Nizwa city

Property market in Oman cools

Oman’s real estate market slowed in February, as total deal value fell 8 percent year-on-year to OR362 million ($941 million), the state-run Oman News Agency reported.  The figure dropped from OR395 million in February 2024, the news agency said, citing data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information. Despite the overall market cooling, transaction […]

City, Architecture, Building

Istanbul needs more houses as Turkey’s largest city grows

Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, will need 122,000 new homes every year to support its growing population, a PwC report has said. The city will need 1.22 million houses over the next 10 years with the population expected to rise by 3 percent to 16.2 million by 2034, Hurriyet Daily newspaper reported, citing PwC Turkey. The […]

A street in Istanbul – Turkey property sales were strong for Q1

Turkish property sales jump may temper on market turmoil

Turkish property sales rose by 20 percent in the first quarter, but recent political unrest and economic uncertainty from mid-March onwards may weigh on the market. The number of property transactions rose to 335,786 in the three months to March 31 compared with the same period last year, according to data issued this week by […]

The Majid Al Futtaim Properties mixed-use project in Riyadh will cover ​​850,000 sq m

Majid Al Futtaim unit to invest $5bn in Riyadh project

Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Properties is set to develop a SAR17.5 billion ($4.7 billion) mixed-use project in Riyadh as part of its strategy to expand its regional real estate footprint. The project will cover ​​850,000 sq m, Arabic news portal Al Arabia reported, quoting CEO Ahmed El Shamy. He said engineering designs are in progress, […]

Delegates attend the Saudi-Egyptian Investment Forum in Cairo on Monday

Egypt and Saudi Arabia plan joint real estate fund

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are planning to create a joint fund to carry out real estate projects in the two countries, an Egyptian official has revealed. Egypt, which is locked in an IMF-recommended programme to stimulate its economy, also wants Saudi investors for new projects in central Cairo, in line with a plan to be […]

Middle East buyers account for a greater proportion of foreign interest in UK property, but overall interest is falling

Middle East buyers’ share of UK property demand grows

Prospective buyers from the Arabian Gulf and the wider Middle East are taking up a larger share of total international interest in UK real estate, the property broker Hamptons has found.  However, total overseas demand for property in the British Isles appears to be falling, Hamptons said. International applicants as a share of the total […]

Construction in Dubai. Two-thirds of the 176,737 homes bought in the emirate last year were off plan

Shortage of Dubai homes forces buyers to go off-plan

A shortage of completed homes for sale in Dubai is pushing people to buy off-plan properties, which have hit record highs in terms of units bought and as a proportion of purchases. Off-plan investors in the emirate have long had to fund their own purchases, but the growing importance of yet-to-be-completed properties may spur more […]

Observers say property is becoming more affordable in Oman

Oman mortgages surged last year on falling property prices

The value of mortgage transactions in Oman surged by almost half last year as declining property prices and marginally lower interest rates pulled in first time and other buyers, including from the UAE and around the Gulf. The total value of mortgages – from a total of 20,680 agreements – rose 46 percent to OR […]

Satish Sanpal: 'Luck might place you at the foot of the ladder, but without hard work you won’t climb very far'

60 seconds with Satish Sanpal, chairman of ANAX Holding

Satish Sanpal established ANAX Holding in Dubai in 2018 as a diversified investment entity. Today, ANAX Holding operates across multiple sectors, including real estate development, hospitality and financial services. ANAX Developments, one of its key subsidiaries, has emerged as a prominent real estate developer in Dubai, delivering high-demand projects across the city. What one piece […]

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A luxury villa at the Palm Jumeirah. In February 3,679 villas were sold in Dubai

Dubai villa sales double in February

Dubai villa sales, many of which were off-plan, doubled in February this year compared to the same month in 2024, helping to drive rapid growth in the emirate’s property market, according to a market survey. February property sales in Dubai totalled $14 billion – a 40 percent increase on February last year, according to real […]

Rising property prices in Turkey and the allure of golden visa programmes are driving many Turks to buy homes abroad

Golden visa lure draws Turks to Dubai real estate

An increasing number of Turkish citizens are investing in real estate overseas, with Dubai and Greece emerging as top destinations, according to a news report. Last year, Turks spent more than $2.5 billion, up 21 percent year on year, in foreign property purchases, Daily Sabah newspaper reported, citing central bank data. In January 2025 alone, […]

Aldar's headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The real-estate developer says Abu Dhabi's foreign buyers are mainly from the UK, Russia, China and India

Foreign buyers fuel Abu Dhabi real estate growth

Increased interest from international buyers is helping to fuel the growth of Abu Dhabi’s real estate market. Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s largest real estate developer, reported a sales increase of 20 percent in 2024, with much of this growth down to foreign buyers, the company’s CEO says . Aldar’s value of sales to foreigners residing […]