Commercial Agency

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18 December 2024

Benchmarking Key Indicators for Saudi Giga-projects: Challenges, Methodologies and Solutions

The importance of Saudi Giga-projects Saudi Arabia has embarked upon a massive development programme as part of its Vision 2030 plan. This programme includes 14 large-scale and ambitious developments, which it is calling ‘giga-projects’. The most well-known of these is NEOM, but other projects include ROSHN, the Red Sea Project and Jeddah Central. There is no acknowledged international definition of […]
9 December 2024

Branded Residences: Four Key Considerations

The significance of brands and branding for the consumer goods industry is beyond the slightest doubt. The combination of generational effects and online marketing has served to reinforce their importance during the last two decades. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Gulf, where branded luxury goods, in particular, have formed a larger percentage of consumer spending than anywhere else.
4 December 2024

Valuation of Real Estate Assets – Land Plus Depreciated Replacement Cost

On occasions when there is no comparable evidence available or an asset is one that would not normally trade in the open market, valuers have to assess the market value of the land and then add it to the Depreciated Replacement Cost (DRC) of the asset. This approach does not represent the true market value as per the RICS Valuation […]
11 November 2024

Dubai’s Office Market Performance – Autumn 2024

Quality of office real estate driving occupancy In the third quarter of 2024, strong demand and heightened leasing activity drove rents higher in Dubai’s office market. City-wide office rents increased by 21% compared to the previous year. Notably, average Grade A rents in DIFC experienced a 20% annual increase, reaching AED 317 per sqft per annum. In nearby Downtown Dubai, […]
24 October 2024

What are the prospects for Saudi tourism?

The evidence to date The need to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil has never been in doubt. Saudi Vision 2030 envisaged tourism playing a central role in that process. The plan originally set what was regarded as an ambitious target of 100m domestic and international tourists by 2030, but immediate success resulted in this being revised upwards to […]
6 August 2024

Value through infrastructure development: The case of Gulf ports

The rise of Gulf ports The history of seafaring throughout the Gulf is well known. The construction of the famous Arab dhow and the existence of extensive fisheries across the region in what are now the countries of the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia are part of a proud tradition that urban planners wish to capture. More recently, Gulf governments […]
16 July 2024

A tale of two markets: Capitalising on arbitrages through retrofits

The Dubai real estate market has been on a spectacular bull run with prices reaching an all-time high of AED 1,397/sqft in July, 2024. This represents an appreciation of over 78% from the market trough reached in April 2009 and, more importantly, prices are approximately 13.2% above the previous peak of September 2014. However, when diving into the granular details, […]
24 June 2024

Natural disasters, resilience and value

The impact of natural disasters Recent adverse weather conditions in the UAE have focused attention on the impact of natural disasters on real estate. This includes impacts associated with climate change, such as flooding caused by changes in precipitation patterns and also the potential impact of rising sea levels, increasing heatwaves and regional droughts. However, the events in the UAE […]
26 April 2024

Private equity and real estate in the gulf: Three reasons to be positive

Introduction: Why private equity matters Worldwide, private equity funds closed deals worth $124 billion in just the fourth quarter of 2023. Fully a quarter of all merger and acquisition deals last year involved private equity.[1] As concerns over inflationary headwinds, rising interest rates and general macro uncertainty diminish, markets such as the Gulf have become increasingly attractive. The prospect of […]
15 January 2024

A new era for real estate dawns in Oman

The context for Oman’s real estate boom Real estate as an engine for economic growth The importance of the real estate sector in any nation’s economic and social development is no secret. For years, construction has been celebrated as a pivotal economic driver, and in recent decades we have seen developed economies evolve from industrial and service-oriented development to what […]
24 October 2023

Valuing luxury real estate in the Gulf

Understanding luxury Luxury is a concept as old as philosophy itself. It has stirred debate for centuries. From the musings of Plato to modern economic thinkers like Werner Sombart and Thorstein Veblen, interpretations of the concept of luxury may differ, but they all seem to agree that luxury is an important aspect of society. Sombart championed luxury’s central role in […]
22 June 2023

Does sustainability pay? How is the Gulf integrating global best practice?

Perspectives on sustainability Architects, planners and regulators alike all favour sustainable buildings, each with good reason: to design, shape and order new developments that will benefit the planet and improve the environment. The upcoming COP28 Conference in Dubai,[1] and the prioritisation of carbon emission reductions through the circular economy as an integral part of 2023 as the Year of Sustainability,[2] […]

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