Qatar Daily News

Wealth funds of gas-rich Qatar are likely to make further global real estate investments as prices in countries such as Germany decline, Jones Lang LaSalle said in a report today.

The funds “are likely to be emerging as the new powerhouse in terms of global real estate capital flows in 2010,” Fadi Moussalli, regional director at Jones Lang LaSalle MENA said in the e-mailed report.

“Cash-rich and with a strong appetite for splashy overseas assets, Qatari vehicles have lately outshined their counterparts from the region and are projected to carry on with their rapid expansion across the real estate world,” Moussalli said.

The International Monetary Fund expects the Qatari economy to grow 18.5 percent this year, far above estimates for the rest of the Gulf Arab region. Harrods Ltd., owner of the London luxury department store, was sold to Qatar Holding LLC by Mohamed Al-Fayed last month. The price was 1.5 billion pounds ($2.2 billion), said two people familiar with the transaction.
Read the rest of this entry »

Barwa Real Estate, Qatar’s second-largest developer, agreed to buy Qatar Real Estate Investment Co as the slump in real estate prices in the region quickens the pace of mergers in the industry.

‘This transaction will create a company with significant scale and depth across all real estate segments and which will continue to play a critical role in supporting the economic development of Qatar,’ Barwa Chairman Ghanim Bin Saad al Saad, said in the statement.
Read the rest of this entry »

The property sector in the Gulf will continue to face difficulties this year, with the UAE and Qatar likely to be hit particularly hard by the knock-on effects of the global financial crisis, according to the ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service.

“We believe that the developed GCC real estate markets will be affected the most as expansion plans in these markets have assumed a steady influx of expatriates and have already witnessed a decrease in property prices and a slowdown in construction activity,” wrote Martin Kohlhase, an analyst at Moody’s. “Moody’s expects that these trends are likely to have the largest impact on the Dubai real estate market, which is the most advanced such market in the Gulf region.”
Read the rest of this entry »