On the 16th-17th December 2008 will take place the International Real Estate Finance (IREF) 2008 conference organised by ICG-Events along the theme “Building Bridges for Future GCC and UK Real Estate Relations”. The participants of Londons conference will discuss several pertinent topics and issues concerning the real estate market in the UK and GCC.
Among actual topics are global economic and real estate market dynamics; challenges and opportunities in the UK real estate market; key real estate trends in the GCC countries; structuring real estate products; issues relating to structuring Shariah-compliant real estate transactions; FDI flows into and out of the GCC real estate sector; a GCC real estate market players panel discussion (a first for any such conference) and a Shariah Scholars panel discussion.
The UK has already witnessed some GCC activity in the real estate sector with the acquisition of a prime UK portfolio by the HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund, the largest Shariah-compliant open-ended real estate fund in the world. Bank of London & Middle East (BLME) and Gulf Finance House (GFH) are also working on acquiring real estate portfolios in the UK, the latter through the Gulf Atlantic Real Estate Fund 11.
The UK has always been an attractive market for GCC investors with Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia leading the way. However, the potential for GCC investment into the UK realty market is much higher than the actual figures suggest.
GCC investors are keen to search for opportunities abroad especially of acquiring bargain prime property assets both residential and commercial. Citigroup in a recent report stressed that while demand for real estate in Dubai has dropped, the sector “is too important to fail, which explains why supply has been carefully managed while demand was left to the inflows of expatriates and individual investors.”
Investors from the GCC and other countries are particularly interested in value-added distressed assets as real estate companies in these mega-cities seek to off-load prime assets sometimes in panic sales to recoup whatever funds they can. The real estate sectors in these countries have been hit by a double whammy the credit crunch and plummeting property prices. QIA recently acquired 20% of the listed capital of the Qatari banks on the Doha Stock market in a transaction valued at US$5.3 billion.
In Dubai the impact of the new Mortgage Law and Law No.13 of 2008 which regulates initial property registration and allows banks to increase up-front equity requirements for products such as mortgages, will have a further dampener effect as the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) seeks to curb speculation in the market and to protect banks from any sizeable corrections in the market.
The conference will combine exciting programme with speakers performance. The list of confirmed participants is as follows:
From the GCC countries: Ali Hamad Lakhraim Al Zaabi, Executive Vice Chairman of Arady PSC; Ali Al-Ghannam , Head of International Real Estate Department, Kuwait Finance House; Mohammed Al-Qahtany, Chief Executive Officer, Al-Aman Investment Company.
From the UK and Europe: Richard Thomas, Managing Director, Global Securities House UK; Mark Berrisford-Smith, Senior Economist, HSBC; Stella Cox, Managing Director, DDCAP Ltd; Sarah Gooden, Partner, Trowers & Hamlins LLP; Chris Laxton, Managing Director of Global Business Development – Real Estate, Avia; David Lock, Chairman, David Lock Associates Ltd; Andrew Martin, Head of Commercial Division, Strutt & Parker; Jason Peers, Group Chief Executive, Jasper Capital; Imam Qazi, Head of Islamic Finance, Burges Salmon; Bridget Rosewell, Chairman, Volterra; Andrew Yeandle, Chief Executive Officer, Middle East, Strutt & Parker; and Dr. Fahad Al-Zumai, Manager of Legal Affairs & Shariah Compliance, Bank of London an d The Middle East Plc. In addition, several other experts have been invited to speak.
UK market is becoming investible again and property yields are starting to show investible returns without the need for excessive leverage, says Richard Thomas, CEO of Global Securities House (UK) and chairman of Gatehouse Bank. I am confident that there will be significant opportunities in the market by the end of this year through to the beginning of 2009.
L.D.