Syrian megaprojects boom
Syria currently has a total of $10.36 billion worth of public and private funds invested, much of it in the country’s real estate sector, which saw a pickup in activity in October. The Dubai -based Majid Al Futtaim group announced on October 20 that it would tender $1 billion worth of building contracts by February for its Yaafour mixed–use project, which sits on a 1 million square meter plot north of Damascus. The project, first announced in 2008, will include two hotels, office and residential space surrounding a shopping mall, and is slated for completion in 2013. Excavation work also started on Bena Properties’ 85,800 square meter Taj Halab mixed-use development in Aleppo, according to the group’s October 20 press release. Finally, the Arab Times reports that Emaar is near completion on the first phase of the $500 million Eighth Gate project just outside Damascus. Other large investors in Syria include Qatari Diar, Al Qudra Holding, the Bin Laden Group and Khorafi Group, according to an October 5 press release from Collaboration, Management and Control Solutions (CMCS), a regional management company based in Dubai.
More Israeli settlements
“We were disappointed by the announcement of new tenders in East Jerusalem,” said United States State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley on October 15, referring to the same-day announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that 238 more homes were to be constructed on disputed land in East Jerusalem. The Israeli Housing Ministry, run by the conservative Shas party, announced a tender for 3,500 new homes across the country, including those in Palestinian East Jerusalem. “In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month” — four times the pace of construction before building restrictions were temporarily put in place last November, Hagit Ofran of Israeli activist group Peace Now told AFP. United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez Taranco said during the October 12 United Nations council session in New York that Israel’s decision violates international law and creates an impasse in the direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine. In March, Israel announced construction of 1,600 new settlement homes during US Vice President Joe Biden’s state visit.
Lebanon DREAMs
More than 70 contractors, developers, consultants, architects, designers, managers, mortgage providers and banks took part in DREAM, the Development & Real Estate Annual Meeting at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center. The exhibition, running from October 20 to 23, was opened by Lebanon’s Finance Minister Raya Hassan and Mohamed Choucair, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, who told attendees that the strength of the real estate sector is a result and not a cause of the country’s economic strength and systematic maturity.
Property’s rocket-ship ride
Total revenue from property sales in Lebanon set a new high in the first nine months of 2010 reaching $6.99 billion, an increase of 60.6 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a Bank Audi report. The number of total transactions increased by 25.3 percent, the highest recorded in that category, with 1,401 sales to foreigners, a decline of 0.7 percent. The average value of all the property sales in the nine-month period increased by 28.2 percent compared to the same period in 2009.
Topsy-turvy times for IFA
The Kuwait-based global development firm IFA Hotels & Resorts, which is behind the upcoming 66-unit luxury Kempinski Residences in Lebanon, reported a loss of $67.3 million for the 2010 fiscal year even though its assets worldwide have increased 10 percent to reach $1.38 billion. The developer is nearing the final phases of the 75,000 square meter residential development at Al Abadiyah Hills near Bhamdoun, which will feature 15 villas, 220 apartments and 30 townhouses, with phase one set to be ready for delivery by the end of the year. “Despite tough economic conditions, this year has been our busiest year yet in terms of moving projects from construction to completion… this significantly reduces the company’s construction exposure, with more than 70 per cent of our projects in South Africa and on the Palm Jumeirah now complete,” said Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Talal Jasem al-Bahar in a press statement, while Chairman Ibrahim al-Therban added that the losses were due to having to sell land to repay loans and maintain a stream of financing for projects already under construction. In June of 2010, IFA participated in the opening of its second Beirut investment, the Four Seasons Beirut, in which it has a controlling stake.
“Ground Zero mosque” design proposal released
Lebanese architect Michel Abboud, principal of Soma Architects, has released three preliminary architectural drawings for the hotly-contested “ground zero mosque,” which actually sits two blocks north of the site of the former World Trade Towers in lower Manhattan and is not, in fact, a mosque. Abboud’s New York-based firm, which also has offices in Beirut and Mexico, has proposed a design for the Park51 Community Center to developer Sherif el-Gamal, CEO of SoHo properties, but as yet no official architect has been appointed and construction will not begin for at least three years. The contemporary, mesh-like appearance of the building’s facade envisioned by Abboud gives way to an airy white interior for the proposed $140 million, 16 story tower, which features a basement level musalla, or prayer room, instead of a traditional mosque. Abboud told the Washington Post in an October 7 article that he looked to Jean Nouvel’s Institut de Monde Arabe in Paris as an inspiration for his modern design, saying: “It is a free-standing structural exoskeleton that plays on notions of privacy and openness.” (Nouvel is also the architect behind Beirut’s upcoming The Landmark mixed use development.) “People have been calling this the ‘Ground Zero mosque’. It’s not at Ground Zero and it’s not a mosque. Our identity has been stolen from us… by extremists,” added developer Gamal.
Lebanon shines at Cityscape
Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco were highlighted as the three regional countries that offer the best investment returns on real estate projects, said Tasweek CEO Masood al-Awar in an October 5 speech at the Cityscape Global exposition in Dubai. The head of the Abu Dhabi-based real estate and marketing company said: “Analysts predict that lower interest rates, state housing assistance schemes and looser loan restrictions will drive strong real estate performance throughout this year” in Lebanon, adding that the country had set a record in the first quarter of 2010 by closing 22,000 transactions for a total of $2.1 billion, a 41 percent increase compared to the same period in 2009. Awar also noted Egypt and Morocco’s respective real estate sectors as growth hotspots in the Middle East and North Africa. Awar believes Egypt’s property sector offers investors 30 percent return in certain areas and incentives such as no capital gains tax. In Morocco he notes an excellent opportunity for buyers of holiday homes, as on average they are priced at about half that of certain European regions. “Besides this, the other attractions [in Morocco] are the waiving of property tax during the first five years, the attractive Mediterranean climate and the positive industry effects of the government’s Vision 2010 tourism campaign,” he added.
Tall prices in Tel Aviv
A $19.6 million deal for an 800-square-meter apartment in an upcoming 26-storey building in Tel Aviv constitutes Israeli’s most expensive home transaction up until September of this year, according to the country’s tax authority. Israeli publication Globes reports that the buyer of the pricey property, which is being developed by Euro Sat Investments, was Lord David Alliance. The second largest home transaction was for a $13.5 million, 740 square meter apartment, also in an upcoming building in Tel Aviv, developed by Habas HZ Investments Ltd. The October 20 report claims that the total price of the 10 largest real estate purchases comes to $96.6 million for the first nine months of the year, down from $104.9 million in 2009.
