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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

RAK Properties results

RAK Properties’ profit surges 245% to $24m in H1 2023

RAK Properties on Thursday reported net profit for the first half of 2023 surged 245 percent year on year to AED88.19 million ($24.01 million). Revenue at the Abu Dhabi-listed developer rose by an annual 164 percent to AED511.64 million during the six months, driven by high demand for new project launches in both Abu Dhabi […]

Adnec Modon merger

Abu Dhabi firms in talks for $12bn real estate and tourism giant

Abu Dhabi’s ambitions to rival its neighbour Dubai as a global events destination have stepped up a notch with talks to create one of the largest real estate, hospitality, events and catering platforms in the region. Sovereign wealth fund ADQ and IHC Capital Holding have submitted an offer to wrap some of their shareholdings into real […]

PepsiCo, Deloitte, PwC, Tim Hortons and Bosch are among the multinational firms that have set up regional HQs in Riyadh

Looming deadline sees scramble for Riyadh offices

As an end of year deadline for setting up regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia looms, international companies are taking lower grade Riyadh office space due to a shortage of availability in prime locations. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in February 2021 plans to transform Riyadh into one of the top cities in the world, […]

Ritesh Agarwal, seen at a SoftBank event in 2019, founded Oyo in 2013

Oyo expands to meet expat demand for Abu Dhabi flats

Indian hospitality chain Oyo is adding 2,000 apartments to its offering in Abu Dhabi as demand grows for expat housing. The furnished units will be available for long-term rent and many will be located in business districts such as Khalifa City, Al Zeina, Al Raha, Al Reem Island, Al Reef and Al Mushrif. Other apartments […]

A street of terraced houses in Primrose Hill, northwest London. The age of much UK housing has helped it develop expertise in retrofitting

UAE-UK Business Council targets building emissions

Decarbonising the built environment should be a key aim for the UK and UAE as they work to accelerate the energy transition, the head of the UAE-UK Business Council has told AGBI. The council’s executive director Bradley Jones said the two countries had “a great deal of expertise in retrofitting existing buildings and developing alternative, […]

Aldar's Faisal Falaknaz said overseas buyers were becoming homeowners in Abu Dhabi

Aldar targets China as sales to overseas buyers balloon

Aldar Properties is working to attract more Chinese customers as it reports a fourfold increase in sales to overseas and expat buyers for the first half of the year. “One interesting demographic we are starting to see is the Chinese,” said Faisal Falaknaz, group chief financial and sustainability officer at the Abu Dhabi developer. “It […]

Sahar Cooper, CEO of Aldar Education

Aldar Education expands into Bahrain and Dubai

Aldar Properties has increased investment in its education business, with over AED350 million ($95 million) added to the initial AED1 billion commitment announced last year, it said on Monday.  A filing to the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange notes that the company is expanding into Dubai and Bahrain, as well as adding a new acquisition in […]

Dubai The World Island project

Dubai businessman ready to take on The World

A Dubai businessman is in talks to try and launch a project on The World, as the emirate’s record-breaking real estate market revives interest in the manmade island development. The World was launched in 2003 by state-owned master developer Nakheel. Made up of 300 small manmade islands in the shape of the map of the […]

Person, Worker, Helmet

Dubai has 392 real estate projects under development

Nine real estate projects worth AED4.06 billion ($1.11 billion) were completed in the first half of 2023, according to the Dubai Land Department (DLD). The emirate has 392 real estate projects currently under development, the UAE state-run Wam news agency reported, citing DLD data. The first half of 2023 saw the registration of 42,583 real […]

Russian investors and developers are buying up rows of villas and homes in Dubai to rent to Russian nationals

Russians bucking trend in Dubai with bigger, pricier homes

Russian buyers are bucking the trend in Dubai real estate and buying bigger, more expensive houses as they make the emirate their new permanent home. Residential property prices in the emirate climbed at their fastest rate in almost a decade in the first half of this year. Villas topped previous records set in 2014. Property […]

Residential deals slump in Saudi as mortgage costs rise

Residential real estate deals in Saudi Arabia fell by nearly a third during the first half of 2023 as higher mortgage costs eroded purchasing power. New analysis from Knight Frank showed there were about 70,000 transactions during the first six months of the year, down from 103,000 in the same period last year, representing a […]

Abu Dhabi recorded transactions from 6,494 newly registered resident investors and 630 non-resident investors in the first nine months of 2023

Off-plan sales in Abu Dhabi surged 111% in Q2 to $490m

The value of off-plan property deals in Abu Dhabi more than doubled to AED 3.8 billion ($490 million) in Q2 2023 from AED 1.8 billion in Q2 2022. In a Q2 market overview report based on data from Quanta, the consultancy JLL said most of the deals were in the AED2 million to AED3 million […]

The Jumeirah Lake Towers area is proving popular with Norwegian investors looking for commercial property

Norwegians return to Dubai commercial property sector

Norwegian investors were the second-largest group active in Dubai’s commercial real estate in the second quarter of the year, marking a dramatic return after being largely absent since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of sales transactions in Dubai’s commercial sector reached 3,080 in the second quarter of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 22 percent, […]

Land, Nature, Outdoors

Turkey island in Dubai set for $21m auction

A manmade island on The World development off the coast of Dubai has been put up for auction, with the price tag starting at AED78 million ($21.24 million). Part of an archipelago built in the shape of the map of the world, the island – named Turkey – has had “many” potential buyers visit the 47,645 […]

Abu Dhabi real estate

Foreign investment up 363% in Abu Dhabi real estate

Abu Dhabi real estate encountered a record 363 percent rise in purchases by foreign buyers in the first half of 2023, according to new data. Foreign purchasers spent AED834.6 million ($227.2 million), Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) reported. The DMT figures showed that the most popular location among overseas investors was Saadiyat […]

Dubai, construction workers, pandemic

Dubai real estate still playing catch-up after pandemic

Dubai’s real estate market is experiencing soaring demand but the supply shortfall from the Covid pandemic is still having an impact and is likely to remain for at least another two years, experts have said. Residential property prices in the emirate climbed at their fastest rate in almost a decade in the first half of […]

Abu Dhabi Japan hotels

Abu Dhabi checks into $900m deal for Japan hotels

A subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is part of a consortium that has completed a $900 million deal to acquire a portfolio of hotels in Japan. The Adia subsidiary has joined Singapore’s private equity real estate firm SC Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs Asset Management in acquiring 27 hotels from Japanese developer Daiwa House […]

Turkish home sales construction Turkey

Turkish home sales drop by 44% after earthquakes

Macroeconomic trends, a quirk of the calendar and the market fallout from February’s earthquakes have led to a 44 percent drop in Turkish home sales, experts have told AGBI. A total of 83,636 homes were sold in Turkey in June, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute, compared to 150,509 during the same month last year. […]

Dubai Mall Emaar

Emaar given ratings upgrade after first-quarter sales surge

Dubai’s largest real estate developer Emaar Properties has received credit rating upgrades from Fitch Ratings, Moody’s and S&P Global, as residential property prices in the emirate continue to rise. Fitch Ratings upgraded its long-term issuer default rating to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB-‘, Moody’s announced an upgrade to Baa2 from Baa3 and S&P Global raised Emaar to […]

Saudi housing construction building site for sale

Saudi’s new mortgage scheme to encourage homebuyers

Saudi Arabia has launched a new mortgage guarantee services firm in an effort to increase home ownership among nationals. The Saudi Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) has launched Dhamanat, a wholly owned subsidiary, with SAR18 billion ($4.7 billion) in capital to provide insurance, alongside mortgages. Mortgage issuance fell by more than one third year-on-year in […]

Arada Sharjah Masaar

Sharjah real estate sales surge from Dubai spillover

The loosening of buying rules and a steady spillover of tenants from Dubai has boosted real estate sales in its neighbouring emirate Sharjah. Arada, a master developer in the emirate, has reported a 186 percent increase in sales during the first half of this year. It sold a total of 1,616 homes worth a total […]