Why Dubai won the Expo bid
As Dubai embarks on a massive development plan leading up to 2020, making sure projects support the emirate’s sustainable economic growth agenda without damaging speculation will be a major challenge
Dubai’s track record of completing projects on time and within specified quality standards was one of the key reasons the bid committee awarded the emirate the rights to host the World Expo 2020, it has emerged.
Dubai made history last week when it beat Brazil’s Sao Paulo, Russia’s Ekaterinburg and Turkey’s Izmir in the bidding competition.
The six-month exhibition, which has never been held in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, is expected to contribute as much as 2 per cent to Dubai’s gross domestic product (GDP), create about 277,000 additional jobs and draw up to 25 million attendees during the Expo.
What will all this mean to Dubai’s real estate sector?
Increase in asking price
The most immediate effect is a huge improvement in property market sentiment, which will result in an increase in the asking price of various developments, particularly those close to the Expo 2020 site, says a JLL report.
While prices in Jebel Ali will most certainly increase, the availability of new supply will temper this spike, adds the report.
“Perhaps, the greatest benefit from hosting major global events, be it the Olympic Games, Fifa World Cup or the World Expo, lies not in the immediate impact on the host economy during the event itself, but in leveraging these short-term factors to create positive long-term legacy benefits to the economy and the urban structure of the host city,” said Alan Robertson, CEO of JLL, Mena.
Long-term benefits
The most significant benefits of hosting the Expo will be providing the impetus to develop a whole new urban district, the Dubai World Central (DWC), and bringing forward the timeline of infrastructure projects.
A key component of the Dubai Expo bid was a commitment to extend the existing Red Line of the Dubai Metro to DWC by 2020.
The extension project would have proceeded at a later point, but it will have to be brought forward to serve the Expo in 2020. The ongoing expansion of the Al Maktoum International Airport in DWC will also have to be fast-tracked, as it is ideally located to cater to international visitors to the Expo.
Other legacy benefits include a new multimodal freight facility and a state-of-the-art exhibition and convention centre in Jebel Ali.
