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UAE’s 'enabling economy' helps investors to think big

This was stated by Anwar Sher, CEO, City of Arabia, while speaking on the outlook and overview of the UAE property market at a panel discussion on ‘Property Development: Perspectives and Outlook for the Future’ in Dubai on Wednesday organised by the Pakistan Business Council, Dubai, in a bid to promote networking pertaining to the growing real estate sector in the region.

Praising the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Ownership Act as a "bold step", Sher pointed out that the 'middle' segment of the property market was saturated. The developers can, however, still invest in high and low-end projects, he said, emphasising that the developers should adhere to the delivery schedule. He said that real estate could fall sick but would not die. He said that some 20 to 25 per cent of completed properties were vacant in Dubai because their buyers, who are large investors, are waiting for value. He said that the buyers of the earlier properties in Dubai were from the region while now most of the buyers are from Europe.

"Dubai knows how to market itself and Pakistani companies should learn from it," he said. There has been a significant amount of investment in the real estate sector by Pakistani developers and real estate firms in Dubai. The prominent speakers on the panel, in addition to Sher, included Saad Zaman, CEO, Islamic Investment Company; Shoaib Walajahi, CEO, Choice Group; and Reza Jaffer, managing director, Emirates International Holdings. Hayan Merchant, managing director, Dubai 9 Group, was the moderator.

The industry experts shared their views and exchanged opinions on the phenomenal real estate boom that is being witnessed in the region. The discussion points included alignment of Pakistani project developers with master developers; creation of harmony and cohesion among the Pakistani real estate developers; and the Pakistan property perspective.

The event was attended by prominent Pakistani real estate developers, bankers, and media, from both the UAE and Pakistan. High value was derived from this event, as attendees learnt a great deal about the property development sector from various perspectives such as operational, financial, legal and customer, and were convinced that having one platform to share ideas would be mutually beneficial for the property development market as a whole, which in turn will have a positive effect on the economy.

Ambassador of Pakistan Air Marshal (Rtd) Syed Qaiser Hussain was the chief guest. He said that the Pakistani property developers must ensure that the faith and trust of the major investors as well as the small house buyers, in maintained and they feel safe.

To a question on creating awareness about the Islamic mode of property financing, the panellists said that several institutions were offering Islamic finance in the UAE and the home buyers' could discuss the system with the representatives of the institutions. Later, Haji Abdul Razzak, chairman of ARY Group, said that they were the first to recently launch their new property, ARY Marina Piers in Dubai, on a 100 per cent Islamic basis by offering the apartments on 10 year instalments without interest at a fixed price and without any down payment.

Hanif Merchant, executive vice president of PBC and the chief organiser of the event said, “The idea of initiating this real estate forum was to develop a networking platform amongst the Pakistani investors, developers and bankers towards opportunity, risk assessment and other business related issues with regard to the regional property market in general. This platform will primarily act as an excellent networking ground for business advantages and cross exchange of ideas.”