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Deyaar ventures into master-planned community developments
Deyaar, the real estate subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank, is aggressively looking at developing master-planned communities and also expand globally as the current cheap price makes foreign properties and assets much lucrative, a top official said.
- By Saifur Rahman, Business Editor
- Published: 22:58 November 1, 2008
Dubai: Deyaar, the real estate subsidiary of Dubai Islamic Bank, is aggressively looking at developing master-planned communities and also expand globally as the current cheap price makes foreign properties and assets much lucrative, a top official said.
"The current financial crisis provides the right opportunities for organisations like us to expand and benefit from the low asset prices," Markus Alexander Giebel, Deyaar's new chief executive, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
"No, we are not in a shopping spree for land. Our approach is controlled international expansion.
"It is our aspiration to have 50 per cent of our build-up area in the international markets, such as Kazakhstan, Jordan, etc, within a year. We are also looking at Europe for investment."
The company's domestic land bank is about 20 million square feet of build-up area. with 16,000 housing units under its management.
Deyaar, whose market cap is Dh6 billion, has a balanced portfolio of rental and sale. The developer has long been managing and developing rental units, from which it has already shifted to freehold mode.
"If you want to have a long-term shareholder value, this is the right time to pick up assets from the international markets as the prices are extremely attractive," he said.
However, this shift of focus to international market has nothing to do with the slowdown in Dubai's real estate market, he said.
"Dubai is still an attractive market. The emirate has matured from an emerging market to a developed market. As a result, it has shifted from speculators and brokers to end-users, which will help the market to stabilise," Giebel said.
'Strong fundamentals'
"The market fundamentals are still strong. But the concerns are driven by external factors."
He said, fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) were the three key factors dominating the market.
"The FUD factor is currently halting sales. This is a temporary phenomenon and will wither away," he said.
The gap between demand and supply in Dubai's housing market is set to stabilise by 2010, Giebel believes.
Deyaar is planning to develop master-planned communities in the coming years, in addition to building towers and low-rise buildings, he said.
"We are currently finalising the Deyaar Village - a master-planned development for 25,000 people - in Al Warqa. This will be a medium-size community," he said.
The first construction tender will be out for bids in a few months time.
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