Tag Archives: real estate
Dubai businesses are predicting growth
The majority of businesses in Dubai believe their profits will have increased by the end of the second quarter of 2013.A new study conducted by the Department of Economic Development (DED) showed that confidence is riding high among the city's corporations, with 91 per cent expecting bumper revenues during the three-month period.This is great news for people who are looking to move to Dubai on a permanent basis, as more job opportunities are likely to crop up as companies expand.Indeed, the DED study indicated that 75 per cent of firms are planning to maintain their current headcount, while 23 per cent said they would be hiring new workers in the second quarter.Like many other parts of the world, the UAE was hit hard by the global economic downturn, but His Excellency Sami Al Qamzi – director general of the DED – said the outlook is now far brighter.”Economic activity in Dubai is on a firmer ground, especially with key sectors such as tourism, logistics and aviation flourishing and real estate on a recovery path,” he remarked.”The services and retail sectors are also signalling strong growth, which reaffirms Dubai's reputation as a resilient and vibrant economy.”According to the DED research, confidence levels are particularly high among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at the moment.The government is always stressing how important start-up firms are to the nation's economy and Dubai has become a rich breeding ground for SMEs in recent years.A separate study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that 83 per cent of small businesses based in the Middle East reported an upturn in sales in 2012, which was much higher than the global average of 65 per cent.Leaders at PwC said family enterprises in the Gulf are less fazed by the stuttering global economy and so this has given them more scope to grow.The report also revealed that women are having greater influence on how Middle Eastern companies are run. Continue reading
Top 5 European Cities for Property Investment
By +Peter Mindenhall Tuesday 21 May 2013 For Europe, the past five years have been about survival and nothing more. However, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the dark days are nearly over and investors are finding their interest piqued once again. 2013 is the year for “refocusing, repositioning and renovating”, with those that survived the financial crisis benefiting from the release of assets. “Business confidence, profitability, and real estate investment intentions are noticeably better for 2013 (though not headcounts); only a small minority of respondents foresees conditions worsening,” PwC explained. “There is nothing we can do about the Eurozone. But we can manage the risks and focus strategy around the medium-term trends – demographics, technology, and urbanisation.” While macro issues are still prevalent, there is certainly cause to look ahead. During the first quarter of 2012, there were high levels of direct real estate investment across Europe , both internationally and domestically, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Strong transaction volumes placed London, Paris and Moscow all in the top ten global cities for volume. This accounted for around GBP 7.5 billion of total investment and over 50 per cent of transactions in these three cities were across borders. So with things hotting up on the continent, just which European cities are the top five for property investment? London The capital of the UK is known around the world as a business and legal hub, attracting investors in their droves year after year. It has been well publicised that residential property prices are continuing to rise to record levels but the commercial sector is also posting a strong recovery. During Q1, office take-up stood at 2.5 million square feet – the highest quarterly total since the end of 2010 and a 28 per cent increase year-on-year. Jones Lang LaSalle expects activity will increase even further over the year. Paris In 2012 Knight Frank named Paris the best city for student accommodation investment and while residential property prices are falling, the city of love can’t help but capture the imagination. Paris is also a popular tourist spot, so hotel and holiday rental investments make the French capital attractive for investors all year round. The country benefits from low mortgage rates and reasonable pricing too, making it a smart choice for the right kind of investment. Munich Germany is proving to be a hotspot for commercial real estate investment and Munich is leading the way. According to PwC, the city is top out of 27 cities across Europe, based on respondents expectations for performance in 2013. This is thanks to a strong microeconomic climate and resilient local property sector. Joe Montgomery, chief executive of ULI Europe, said: “Almost five years since the start of the financial crisis, real estate investors remain cautious about capital deployment and the availability of debt. As a result, investors are focusing on the harder to find opportunities in blue-chip cities such as Munich, Berlin, London and Paris rather than turning to secondary locations in search of higher returns.” Vienna For those with their hearts set on residential investment, Vienna is good place to be. The Global Property Guide reported that the market is buoyant, even after nine years of almost continual house price rises. The capital’s residential property price index posted a 13.09 per cent rise in 2012, according to Oesterreichische Nationalbank. While on a quarterly basis values actually dropped by 0.65 per cent in Q4, the market remains stable. After all, this represents the first quarterly drop since Q2 2011 at a time when the rest of Europe has been floundering. Rome True, Italy has been going through a tough time of late and property prices in Rome are continuing to fall. However, weak real estate values have brought property more in line with the budgets of many investors, meaning now is the time to snap up that Roman apartment you always dreamed off. When property prices begin to rise again, real estate in the historic city will be a good asset to have in your back pocket. However, like most struggling European economies, Rome is a cash market, so ensure you have the funds in place to avoid battling with the banks for finance. Continue reading
Chinese Shopping Malls To Become Hottest Investment Property: ARA
Total number of mainland malls expected to jump 40 per cent to more than 4,000 by 2015. Wednesday, 22 May, 2013 [UPDATED: 5:09PM] [font=’Arial Black’, ‘, Arial, Helvetica, ‘, ‘Nimbus Sans L’, ‘, sans-serif} ‘] jeanny.yu@scmp.com [/font] Malls like Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong will be the benchmark for ARA Private Funds, which wants to invest in malls that can service China’s rapidly growing middle class. Photo: SCMP Shopping malls will surpass office and residential space as the most profitable type of property investment in China over the next two to five years, thanks to the nation’s booming middle class and its fast-growing income, says a property investment firm partly owned by Asia’s richest man, tycoon Li Ka-shing. “District shopping centres with a gross floor area of 1 million square feet or bigger, and a high footfall will offer the biggest upside with limited risks for private funds in the coming years in the mainland,” said Ng Beng Tiong, ARA Private Funds chief executive. Ng, a former investment banker, is targeting an internal rate of return of 20 per cent by building and operating shopping malls in the mainland through the newly-raised US$441 million Asia Dragon Fund II. HSBC forecasts that another 93 million Chinese households will join the middle class by 2015, while the China Chain Store and Franchise Association separately expects the number of mainland malls to jump 40 per cent to more than 4,000 by 2015. However, not all of these new malls will provide decent returns, so real estate funds will have to be highly selective, Ng said, warning that the presence of luxury brands did not guarantee fat margins. “We don’t go for malls that are full of Guccis and LVs (LVMH luxury goods), but (for) the ones that serve the daily needs of a large catchment of residents and office workers,” Ng said, citing its Asia Dragon Fund I’s Dalian shopping mall and the Festival Walk in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Tong as references. Of the two private funds closed last year, Ng plans to invest up to 70 per cent of the US$441 million Asia Dragon Fund II in China, of which over a half would go to shopping malls that serve the growing middle class. “It is the middle income group that is growing faster in terms of their wealth and buying power, which translates into a very strong fundamental support for shopping malls”, he said. The firm, in which Cheung Kong holds a 14 per cent stake, is looking to expand its footprint to key tier-two cities, such as Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Chengdu and Wuhan. It already had projects underway in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian and Nanjing, he said. By 2015, the retail market would double in China’s key tier-two cities, according to HSBC research, and shopping malls would account for 74 per cent of the retail market in these cities, up from 51 per cent currently. Singapore-based ARA managed around S$22.1 billion (US$17.6 billion) of assets as of the end of last year, according to its annual report. The company is an affiliate of the Cheung Kong Group and apart from its private fund business, it also runs some of Asia’s most popular REITS (real estate investment trust), including Hui Xian REIT and Fortune REIT. Continue reading
