23 January 2020
How easy it is to retire in the UAE? Easier as of this year, is the simple answer. There are now estimated to be almost three million expatriates living and working in Dubai alone[1]. An equal number are to be found in the other emirates and a growing number of those are approaching retirement age. Not all of them, by […]
15 December 2019
It’s the time of the year when companies try to maximise efforts for a strong close to the last quarter before jetting off on long-planned holiday breaks. It is also the time when they are closing their books for the year, ensuring accuracy of all financial information before starting afresh in the new year. With a rise in the number […]
20 October 2019
A simple business model of leasing large, coveted office space on a shared basis; a peak valuation of USD 47 billion; a mission to “to elevate the world’s consciousness”. These factors seemed to be the ideal ingredients for a successful start-up with a social conscience – WeWork. But, one look at a filing from the industry-leading unicorn as part of […]
25 September 2019
What has happened Responding swiftly to the cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, the UAE central bank followed suit in September this year with a reduction of 25 basis points to 2.25%. This is far from a historic low: interest rates in the UAE averaged 1.43% from 2007 until 2019, reaching an all-time high of 4.75% in […]
17 September 2019
Short-term rental accommodation, or holiday homes, have been a hot topic of discussion over the past couple of weeks, first because of Emaar Properties’ entry into the space with its short-term rentals platform Ease by Emaar, followed by the developer banning such stays in its Downtown Dubai community with effect from September 19. Apart from the fact that the move […]
5 September 2019
We’ve been listening to news of an increasing number of stores announcing closures, citing unviable trading conditions in the face of heated competition from e-commerce and changing preferences of a new demographic. The latest retail giant to report trouble is Forever 21, who as of last week was preparing for a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The ramifications of these […]
20 August 2019
Business valuation has always relied on the triangulation between three different methodologies: discounted cashflow (DCF), comparable analysis, and some form of dividend valuation approach.
30 July 2019
The importance of forecasts Every well-planned real estate investment decision is underpinned by a series of market and site-specific forecasts. For a construction project, the most important are almost inevitably the projected sales price and schedule, and construction costs, whilst for an investment, it is future rents, eventual sales price, yields, and most probably, financial variables such as interest rates. […]
22 July 2019
Sunil Parmar, Associate Partner of the Project and Building Consultancy department at Cavendish Maxwell, explains the common yet significant risks associated with Reinstatement Cost Assessments (RCAs), otherwise known as insurance valuations for properties.
30 June 2019
Real estate markets and demographics What drives real estate prices – sheer numbers or economic weight? Intuitively, all other things being equal, consistently higher rates of growth of resident population in a region or country will drive up real estate prices by comparison to its neighbours and competitors. The IMF once even advanced a rule that a 0.25% rise in […]
10 June 2019
Effective market research, the lynchpin of successful real estate development and investment, is impossible without reliable data; without it, developers and investors face significantly higher risks.
6 May 2019
Under new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9, all GCC banks compliant with the standards are required to break down investment portfolios into pre-defined stages. Accordingly, Stage 2 – referred to as underperforming, where credit risk has increased significantly since initial recognition – warns stakeholders to account for expected credit losses, especially since the classification could lead to business troubles […]