Qatar

While Qatar’s projected demographic and economic growth should provide robust demand for property over the coming years, the most significant shift in the market could be the result of a stronger and more consistent uptake of credit. Indeed, many developers and brokers are hoping for improved conditions for mortgage growth. This would increase the...

Building green has been part of the GCC market for some time. In the pre-financial-crisis days, before 2008, when buildings in the UAE were appearing rapidly, many developers highlighted their environmentally friendly credentials. However, in a period of such rapid growth, there was a concern that green talk was simply ephemera.

Its geography lends Qatar to being a trading nation. The peninsula is located near one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, the Straits of Hormuz. In the lead up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, boosting capacity of the transport sector has been a major priority, as demonstrated by the government’s recent budget allocations.

In 1949 Qatar set up its first automatic telephone exchange, a 50-line network that helped the state reach what was then considered a major milestone in telecommunications: eliminating the need for human operators. In the 63 years since, alongside an economic surge fuelled by the energy sector and a growing population, the telecoms industry evolved...

The use of Arabic on the web has made major gains in recent years, growing by 2500% between 2000 and 2011, according to a study by New York-based app translation firm Smartling. Arabic was the fastest-growing language on the micro-blogging site Twitter between 2010 and 2011, when the volume of Arabic posts grew more than 20 times, according to Paris...

The local industrial base has continued to show impressive growth throughout 2011 and into 2012. Supported by hydrocarbons, the Gulf state has embarked on a process of diversification that has seen the establishment of a steady flow of downstream projects.