MANAMA, 7 August 2007 — Real estate projects in Dubai will reach $230 billion out of a total of $310 billion in development projects in the emirate over the next decade, an extensive report conducted and released by MEED yesterday revealed. The study suggested that three-quarters of the emirate’s planned projects for the next decade will be in the property sector.
The study called “The Dubai Real Estate Report 2007” is an essential information tool for any individual or business linked to the emirate’s construction, investment and real-estate sectors. Although the supply of residential properties is greater than ever, and 175,000 new units will be available by 2010, demand is set to outstrip this, with an estimated 181,000 units required by the end of the decade.
The value of projects either planned or under way in Dubai will total $310 billion over the next decade. Of this, close to $230 billion, the equivalent of almost three-quarters of the total, is planned in the property sector.
Construction has grown at an average of 32.7 percent a year over the past six years, and in 2006 accounted for 12.7 per cent of total gross domestic product, up from 7.2 percent in 2001. Averaging 17.9 percent since 2001, the economy of Dubai has been one of the best performing in the Gulf over the past five years, largely due to property development.
Real-estate and business services have recorded average growth of 25 percent a year, driven in large part by government-empowered developers, such as Emaar Properties, Dubai Properties and Nakheel, and landmark projects like Downtown Dubai, Business Bay and the Palm Islands trilogy. The pioneering research, conducted by MEED in conjunction with external industry experts over a two-year period, is based on data and business insight from a variety of sources, including prominent developers and their growth plans and government agencies.
The report includes ground-breaking new figures to account for Dubai’s robust growth in recent years, with the property industry set to prevail as the main factor fueling the emirate’s booming economy until at least 2010. Angus Hindley, MEED research editor, said: “Real estate has played and will continue to play a vital role in the emirate’s growth.
“It is a lynchpin for Dubai’s economy, fuelling the construction boom and attracting billions of dollars to the emirate. However, the relative immaturity of the market has made it difficult for businesses and investors to gain accurate data on supply and demand trends. “This report gets under the skin of the real-estate sector and addresses that information gap by providing a detailed assessment of the supply-and-demand outlook, taking into account each of the economic factors that will influence the real-estate sector until the end of the decade and beyond.”