DUBAI, 4 July 2006 — The UAE has topped the list of GCC countries in terms of real estate projects under construction as of June 2005 having grabbed 820 out of a total of 1,825 projects, according to a local study. “UAE secured the first position with a domination of 820 projects accounting for a total value of AED130.6 billion and Saudi Arabia stood second with 208 projects accounting for a value of AED28.9 billion.
The number of projects under way in the other GCC countries account for a total of AED42.12billion in value,” according to the Economic Bulletin published by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) citing a study by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company. It is estimated that the new developments will attract more than $80 billion in investments in the next five years. In 2005, UAE accounted for 64 percent of the total value of new projects under construction in the GCC. Statistics from Dubai Land Department reported a drop on the total number of land deals from 2,783 in 2004 to 2,494 in 2005 whereas the total value of land sales surged from approximately AED12 billion in 2004 to AED16 billion in 2005. The current boom in the UAE real estate sector and specifically in Dubai can be attributed to its political, cultural and financial stability within the region. The Dubai real estate market has managed to attract a majority of high-end investors from the GCC, Indian subcontinent, Europe and US, according to the bulletin.
Meanwhile, Dubai alone has added 560 buildings to its skyline this year, municipal officials said while releasing the statistics of the completed buildings in the first three months of the current year.
Giving a break-up of the building statistics in Dubai for the first quarter, officials said that out of the total 560 completed buildings, 121 were in the commercial sector, 320 in the residential sector and 119 in the recreational, service and industrial sectors. The total spending for the completed buildings during the first three months of the current year in the emirate of Dubai was more than AED2.83 billion. Also during the period, land deals worth AED9.23 billion were accomplished in Dubai.
