Construction

After having put several major projects on hold during 2011, the Executive Council announced in January 2012 that it had approved a number of projects across several sectors, including transport, housing, health care and tourism. With commercial real estate development expected to be relatively slow in 2012 as the emirate works to absorb the large...

An important part of the development of Abu Dhabi has been the land reclamation and dredging works that have occurred along the emirate’s shoreline. This type of work has helped to form the island and coastal developments that are playing an increasingly important role in the local real estate market. But with most of this work having already been...

In late 2011 Dubai’s real estate sector began to show solid signs of recovery, led mostly by the residential segment, which has benefitted from increasing demand and rising prices. In the first quarter of 2012 the sector posted growth of around 4%, making it the best performing real estate market globally for that period, as per the Knight Frank...

Towards late November 2012, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice-president, and prime minister and ruler of Dubai, announced a new mixed-use development, Mohammed bin Rashid City (MBR), which upon completion looks set to be the biggest such complex in the world. The plans feature a series of retail spaces (collectively known as the “Mall...

Despite the ongoing repercussions from the 2008-09 economic downturn, as a whole Dubai’s real estate sector has seen increased activity in recent years. Since the recovery began in late 2010 and early 2011, many of the emirate’s largest projects, a substantial number of which were put on hold in the years following the downturn, have been restarted...

Despite the lingering effects of the 2008-09 global economic downturn, contractors, property developers, materials suppliers and other players are broadly optimistic about the construction industry in Dubai.