DUBAI — The Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, who is also the Chairman of Dubai Holding, has said that government support for the real estate industry in the Middle East (ME) has paved the way for a more transparent and investor-friendly environment.
The Minister said this yesterday during the inauguration of the three-day Cityscape, the world’s biggest event dedicated to the region’s multi-trillion-dollar property industry, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Gergawi cited Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority, the Dubai Land Department’s Escrow Law 8, and Sultani Decree No 12/2006 in Oman as some of the laws that had made the real estate industry more transparent and friendly to investors, developers and end-users.
He also hailed the institutional investors in ME as “formidable players” in the global property market, which is now taking notice of the project management expertise and asset creation skills of real estate firms in the region.
Cityscape Dubai is a B2B (business-to-business) event for those who can invest over Dh18.36 million ($5 million) in real estate projects. Participants at this year’s show are expected to unveil at least Dh734.52 billion ($200 billion) worth of projects.
“The progress of Cityscape as an event underscores the growth of Middle Eastern companies as formidable players in the global real estate industry,” he told reporters after a tour of the exhibition, which has attracted 45,000 industry players from across 120 countries.
He stressed that this year’s event was a far cry from the first Cityscape event in 2002, in which the region hosted and wooed foreign talents.
“Our project management expertise and real estate asset creation skills are being sought after by countries across the world,” Gergawi said. “We now house the world’s biggest property exhibition and also are home to some of the world’s most prominent master developers.”
Rohan Marwaha, group director of Cityscape for IIR Middle East, the event organiser, said that transparency and regulation were the key factors to improving investor confidence in the Middle East property industry.
“Transparency and predictability for investors has improved considerably in recent years and much of this is due to development in legislation and corporate governance,” he noted.
However, Gergawi stressed that more had to be done “from a regulatory point of view to help realise a sustainable, predictable real estate market that achieves foreign investor confidence.”
He added: “I am sure governments are aware of this and will gradually take the necessary steps.”
Gergawi noted that the regional property market had taken great strides over the last five years.
“The number, quality and diversity of exhibitors and the sheer scale of the exhibition, which has increased by 15,000 sq m from last year, mark Cityscape Dubai as the leading property market for institutional investors from around the world,” he said.
The event organisers said the number of participants in this year’s Cityscape had leapfrogged 28 per cent from last year and doubled compared to the event in 2005.
It now has a new information service focusing on emerging markets, with news feeds from more than 2,500 publications worldwide as well as comments from its various regional and international analysts.
“It can be difficult to obtain accurate facts and analyses about the real estate industry in certain emerging markets,” Marwaha said.
“The new service aims to provide some transparency by providing reliable information from an extensive network of sources.