New Built G+11 Residential Tower – Dubai

Client: Instone Developments

Location: Dubai Silicon Oasis

Project Value: Confidential

Purpose: Snagging inspection and report

Project Background

Our client was acquiring a new build tower located in Dubai Silicon Oasis and instructed the Project and Building Consultancy team at Cavendish Maxwell to undertake a snagging inspection of the property prior to conclusion of the deal. Snagging inspections are essentially detailed condition surveys which follow the completion of construction works. They are undertaken to ensure that the works have been completed in accordance with the contract documentation, statutory requirements and good practice.

Our Services

We Our scope of work included a detailed inspection of all apartment units in the tower as well as all common areas, service rooms and external areas.

Our surveyors inspected the tower over a three-day period inspecting all areas in a methodical manner. This involved surveying each apartment on a room-by-room basis and inspecting each element, such as ceiling, walls, floor finishes, joinerywork, sanitaryware, lighting, small power and finishes, and recording any snagging items or defects using tablets and our bespoke in-house software.

Following issuance of our report to the client, they instructed the contractor to remedy all snagging items prior to acquisition. We inspected the building again once snagging works had been completed to check all items in our report had been remedied.

Following our final inspection, we reported back to the client that the snagging works had been completed and they were reassured that they were receiving a building in a good condition that was ready for occupation.

P P Varghese leads Cavendish Maxwell’s strategy and consulting team. Varghese comes with over 17 years’ experience gained through advising government, private and institutional clients on single-use, mixed-use, standalone, and master planned projects. He has been exposed to consulting and operations functions with his expertise spanning development planning and strategy, cost-benefit analysis, operational reviews and monitoring, hotel operator search and negotiations, as well as arbitration support and dispute resolution for hotel management agreements. In his previous role, Varghese served as Partner - Real Estate Strategy and Consulting at Knight Frank Middle East. There he was responsible for advising clients on real estate development strategy, optimising department processes to enhance revenue, and developing client acquisition and retention strategies. At Cavendish Maxwell, Varghese will lead an expert team that provides development advisory, feasibility, portfolio analysis and real estate research for all real estate asset classes and will identify new growth opportunities for the business. Varghese is a Master of Management in Hospitality, majoring in real estate investments and finance from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, New York.

Benjamin is a Chartered Building Surveyor bringing over 15 years of global professional experience to the Project and Building Consultancy team at Cavendish Maxwell. Over the course of his career, he has successfully advised top-tier international clients from around the world on portfolio acquisitions/disposals, lifecycle costing, technical due diligence, and building pathology, among others. He has delivered a full range of project management services including new builds, refurbishment, fit-out and alterations. Prior to his role at Cavendish Maxwell, Benjamin headed up the building consultancy department of the New Zealand arm of a global real estate firm. He also has extensive experience in the UK and the wider Middle East, covering building consultancy services across the GCC for a variety of projects and asset classes for developers, investment trusts, local authorities and large private clients in the region. He has advised clients from China, Singapore and Australia on some of the largest property acquisitions in both New Zealand and Australia. Being an RICS-accredited Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) assessor, Benjamin provides consistently distinguished standards of service for the company and the wider surveying profession in the UAE.

Gregg is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) with the American Society of Appraisers, bringing global valuation expertise to the machinery and business assets team at Cavendish Maxwell. He has conducted valuations throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and North, Central and South America. During this time, he advised top-tier international clients on plant and machinery valuation matters for disposal, secured lending, insurance, and accounting purposes, as well as completed inter-company transfer valuations for multinational corporations. Gregg has vast experience in both ASA and RICS bases of value, including valuations for fair value, fair market value in continued use/installed/removed, orderly liquidation value, forced liquidation value, and market value in place/for removal. He has catered to sectors and markets including manufacturing, construction, F&B, automotive, aerospace, textiles, woodworking, mining, engineering, marine, plastics, public sector, education, oil and gas, commercial vehicles, electronics and semiconductors. At Cavendish Maxwell, Gregg is responsible for overseeing plant and machinery valuations for loan security, accounts and insurance purposes. His remit also includes business development, reviewing reports and valuations, and delivering new proposals. In his previous role, Gregg worked as associate director for a UK-based valuation firm, where he focused on valuations for loan security and restructuring purposes.

Julian joined Cavendish Maxwell as Chief Economist in January 2019. Coming from an old real estate family in Ireland, his career as an economist began with a first-class honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics at the age of 19, following which Julian was an analyst with the UK Government. He later helped develop and launch the UK’s residential forecasting service with the firms that merged to become Global Insight. Julian subsequently developed derivatives in the City of London and established real estate futures contracts for what is now the International Commodity Exchange. He also ran a property development and management firm, before eventually serving as an international consultant and trainer to governments, central banks and notable firms including AXA, Citibank, DBS, Deloitte and Thomson Reuters. Julian fills his work-free time with academic pursuits; he holds several postgraduate degrees, including a PhD in International Risk Management Policy, and also the Licensed Conveyancer qualification. Julian has published many business and academic texts and articles, and is also a keen walker – especially fond of the Scottish Highlands.