“Buyers still have interest in buying land. The problem lies in finding adequately priced plots of land — the majority of plots are still priced unreasonably high relative to the potential of the market”
“There was growth in supply but this growth [is stopping] because developers and other builders are exiting the market and not developing anything new. Thus, because no more major or large amounts of developments are coming, I don’t think that the situation in 2014 will be much worse”
“As a developer, you have to go and find the client and offer him something that he needs. Every single company, developer or broker needs to have a research department these days”
“I have a feeling that we are almost at the end of this tough period. But I hope that nobody will do new developments because people need to breathe a little bit. It is now the market for people to take time, to think, and I would like people to sit and focus on urban planning, to take care of this jungle”
“Obviously what we are living through is not easy and being able to adapt quickly was the key. To give an example, we knew that 2013 would not be easy; there were going to be elections and we knew that going ahead with billboard sales at the time of the elections would be tricky. But what happened? The situation was much worse”
“Demand for apartments will continue only for small units and the luxury market will take a few more years to start seeing any improvement. So apartments between 75-sqm and 150-sqm will be leading in demand”
“Today the Aura project in Erbil [Kurdistan] is our only ‘escape’ from Lebanon and we are happy with the sales prospects for Aura. From a risk-diversifying point of view, at Zardman we don’t think we will take any project outside of Lebanon in 2014”
“Concerning the Syrian families, their situation will also excite the demand to increase but we are looking forward that the political situation in Syria be solved in general”
