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Mazaya Monthly Real Estate Report -
Week 1 - November 2015
Al-Mazaya Holdings Weekly Real-
Estate Report points out that there are
currently several factors that are acting
to depress Gulf real estate markets,
from the contagion caused by poor
economic growth in China to the effect
of considerably weakened oil prices that
are causing Gulf governments to rethink
spending plans to avoid running deficits.
While investors and other interested
parties wait to see what direction the
market will take, the reality is that we are
seeing projects and major developments
in the region postponed or cancelled. And
with some of the world’s most respected
analysts predicting an oil price around
the $53 a barrel mark for the foreseeable
future, it is does not look as if the Gulf real
estate pain is about to end, nor that the
rapid growth we have seen in recent years
will resume in the short to medium-term.
Al-Mazaya Holdings Weekly Real-
Estate Report believes, however, that
Gulf governments should be praised
for the efforts they have made so far to
safeguard respective real estate sectors
from negative momentum. In particular,
the governments of the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain have
acted quickly and decisively to bring
about some kind of market stability and
to keep foreign investors interested.
The real estate sector in the United Arab
Emirates benefits to some degree from
its size and the variety of developments
on offer to investors. In this respect, risk
can be spread within the emirate, a factor
beloved by large-scale investors. The
emirate is also better able to withstand
fluctuations in the global economy than
some other Gulf states thanks to the size
of its market and also the established
desirability of owning property in Abu
Dhabi or, particularly, Dubai. In Qatar
we see the real estate market buoyed
by government infrastructure spending
plans to 2017 and beyond. Investors
are encouraged by state backing for
projects such as airports, marine
port upgrades, roads and bridges.