Construction & Real Estate

Skyscraper frenzy sprawling in Arabian Gulf

A report by the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) said that Doha comes in first place in the Gulf region in terms of the costs of commercial office units' incumbency, ranking 15th globally, while London, Hong Kong and Paris assumed the first three places, respectively.

Gulf real estate development breaks through US$1 trillion

The sheer scale of new development in the GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is impressive by any standard. According to data from Dubai-based research company Proleads, there are now a total of 885 active civil buildings projects in the region, each with values of more than US$10m.

Abu Dhabi: Planning for the future

At present, 930,000 people reside in the metropolitan area of Abu Dhabi and this number is expected to grow to over 3m by 2030. To accommodate this growth, the government has set forth targets for hotel rooms, schools, office and retail space and an integrated public transportation network. The increased capacity in all these areas is expected to be the catalyst for continued growth in the emirate and ensure the necessary infrastructure to support the booming population.

Construction sector suffers supply gap, labour shortages and cost hikes

Sources in the UAE construction sector estimated the shortage in contractors in the local market at between 30 and 40 percent, underscoring that the supply gap will need time to overcome setbacks, and necessitates granting more facilities to international companies to lure them into the local market at preferential terms.

Canal to set new benchmark

Limitless, the global development arm of Dubai World, has described its Arabian Canal project as the Middle East's biggest civil engineering project and Dubai's most ambitious mega-project. Work on the 75 kilometre man-made canal will involve digging and moving more than a million cubic metres of earth - enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day.

Dubai: Looking eastward

Dubai World's property development subsidiary Limitless has clinched another major deal in Asia, signing on with Indian developer DLF for a US$12 billion mixed-use real estate project outside of the Indian city of Bangalore. The project will involve developing a satellite city 35 kilometres to the southwest of Bangalore, the heartland of India's information technology industry.

Qatari Diar buys London property project

Qatar's Diar real estate investment company announced it has agreed to buy phase two of the Grosvenor Waterside residential development in the upmarket London district of Chelsea. The purchase was the second deal in London for the state-owned firm following its acquisition of Chelsea Barracks, Nasser al-Ansari, chief executive officer of Diar, said.