Dubai's property sector has hit the bottom and is on its way back up, the chairman of the emirate's biggest developer said today.
Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties, said Dubai is oversupplied but that the situation may correct itself within 20 months.
He said lower prices had reduced the cost of doing business in the emirate and helped it stay competitive. The oversupply "is going to be a great advantage for the city", he told a conference in Dubai.
With more projects coming online, there will be more than 80,000 excess units available during the next two years, according to Landmark Advisory. However, risks the city took during the bubble would ultimately work to its benefit, Mr Alabbar said.
"Dubai has been criticised for taking too much risk, but in truth Dubai should be celebrated because of the risk the city has taken," he said.
Still, he said the crisis had presented him and his company with a "pretty big bump" to overcome. "Everybody got hit," he said, but "I think everything is back aside from the real estate side."
One of Emaar's mistakes, he said, was that it had been too dependent on Dubai and had not expanded quickly enough into fast-developing markets such as India. Emaar hopes to generate 50 per cent of its business outside Dubai in the next few years; Dubai currently accounts for 80 percent of its business, according to published reports.
Despite these faults and the turmoil caused by the crisis, he said Emaar was ready to launch upon its next stage of growth, financed through debt and possibly by selling shares in some of its subsidiaries to the public. But the Investment Corporation of Dubai, a government investment arm that owns about a third of Emaar, is not planning to sell its stake as part of a planned privatisation drive revealed yesterday.
"Our decision has nothing to do with the government privatisation drive, because that's really their business, but I think for anyone to grow you will either increase your capital or take some of your entities and take them to the public market," Mr Alabbar said.
"You will increase your debt. So I think the future is about a combination of all. If something interesting comes, we'll probably take it and see which one of these will work better for us to grow in the future. If we're saying the worst is over, then we have to shift gears and start looking 20 miles ahead."
*Additional reporting by Kevin Brass
Company%20Profile
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
The Little Things
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto
Four stars
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
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How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
All%20We%20Imagine%20as%20Light
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The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
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There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Famous left-handers
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5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
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