JEDDAH, 24 December 2004 — Recommendations of the conference on real estate development and investment, which ended here last night, are to be sent to the concerned authorities for consideration.
“We’ll be forwarding our recommendations through the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry,” Dr. Fahd Y. Aleatany, professor of international business and economy at King Abdul Aziz University and chairman of the conference organizing committee, said. The conference, which was part of a five-day exhibition on real estate development at Jeddah Hilton, ended last night.
Speakers called for overseas investments to create mega real estate projects.
“If we’ve to create mega shopping malls then we must attract foreign investment,” Architect Anas Saleh Serafi, director general of Jeddah’s Serafi mega mall and Abnia Design Consultants, said in his presentation.
“The role of shopping malls has changed now. They are no longer a center to merely sell goods and merchandize. These are now the places Saudi families look forward to visit and spend their leisure time. So a mall has to be big and spacious, both in terms of area and facilities,” he said. Such malls must be fully air-conditioned and have entertainment and recreation facilities for children, libraries or bookstores and clubs for intellectual pursuits, aside from restaurants or food centers for families. “It’s not always that they want to go to the Corniche. So shopping malls are the second best alternative for families,” he said.
“Anyone with 5,000 to 20,000 sq. meters of land thinks of building a shopping mall. Such a tendency will not help the industry to grow. We need many more mega shopping malls than just three we have, including one in Makkah,” he said.
He pointed out the way Dubai had developed with foreign investments. The cost of its two mega malls runs into billions of dinars.
There has been a sudden growth of shopping malls in Jeddah and other major cities, but they do not excel in terms of space, quality and amenities. “Mega malls are a ‘must’ given the growing population,” he emphasized.
Serafi attributed the slow pace of investments in shopping malls to low returns.
Architect Talal A. Samarkandi, general manager of an architecture firm, listed the steps that should be followed when one thinks of owning a house.
Bally Chohan, chairman of the London-based UK Property Investments, in his presentation dealt with the opportunities available for real estate investments in Britain and the rest of Europe.
The flow of investments in the UK and European real estate development has been more now, “as returns on such investments are much more than in stocks, bonds and gilds,” he said. “From all over the Middle East, investments have been going into UK and Europe, but many more avenues are available,” he said, adding that his company is looking for developing partnerships with Saudi investors.
Adel Shakoor, CEO, Trade-X-Arabia, which organized the event, described the exhibition and conference as successful, going by the number of delegates and the kind of interaction they had with the presenters.
