Dubai market environment "favorable" for new listings: developer

21/10/2017 19:00 AST

The chairman of the Middle East's biggest developer Emaar Properties praised Dubai's market environment Saturday amid preparation of the listing of 30 percent of its subsidiary Emaar Development.

"The current market development is favorable as we are thinking long-term," said Mohammed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties, which is the firm behind the world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Alabbar made the remarks to the media after Emaar shareholders held general assembly and gave nod to the plans of the transfer of 20 percent of assets from the mother firm Emaar to the subsidiary Emaar Development in order to list the latter on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Emaar Properties is the bellwether firm traded on the DFM.

Alabbar also highlighted that "we are planning long-term, not short-term," as office prices and rental rates in the Gulf Arab emirate "stagnated due to oversupply and limited demand, with more declines forecast," according to the analysis of Dubai-based real estate advisory firm Asteco.

Earlier last week, Asteco said that the apartment rental rates in Dubai were down 4 percent in the third quarter, with sales flat. However, year-on-year rental declines reached 12 percent and sales 4 percent.

While western stock markets like the Dow Jones Industrial Average have rallied and have reached all-time highs this year, the DFM General Index added a mere 4 percent since Jan. 1 2017.

The International Monetary Fund in July cut UAE economic growth forecast for 2017 to 1.3 percent from 1.5 percent it forecast in April based on slower growth in the non-oil sector, but said on Oct. 10 the UAE growth would rebound to 3.4 percent in 2018 due to faster recovery of the world economy.

Xinhua