Dubai Expo 2020 win has 'instant impact' on property, says senior...

A senior figure in the UAE's real estate industry says Dubai's successful bid to host Expo 2020 has had an immediate impact on the country's property sector.

Mahdi Amjad, executive chairman and CEO of Omniyat Group - a firm whose project slate includes plans to build ‘The Pad’, a 24-storey building tilted at a 6.5-degree angle near Dubai’s Burj Khalifa - is predicting a bullish 2014 for the UAE real estate sector on the back of Dubai’s success.

In fact, he said: “We felt the impact of the Expo 2020 win on the real estate sector from the first minute the results were announced.”

And recent regulatory changes designed to protect the sector are adding to the feel-good factor, he claimed.

Citing new limits on mortgage lending announced by the UAE Central Bank earlier this year, as well as an increase on the fee paid upon the transfer of a property to new ownership, had brought “greater transparency” to the market.

Analysts had expected a successful Expo bid to bolster confidence in the UAE, and particularly Dubai, with the construction of a number of high-profile projects associated with the event and an anticipated visitor boom forecast to benefit the construction, property and hospitality sectors.

However, earlier this month the wealth management arm of UAE bank Emirates NBD said in a research note that investors will be watching as Dubai seeks to deal with a sizeable slate of debt obligations that mature next year.

In the wake of the award to Dubai of Expo 2020 global real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle said that in the short-term the impact of the win would need to be “managed carefully to avoid the inevitable boost in sentiment translating into excessive price growth or over development”.

Some Dubai residents have expressed concern about the impact of the renewed confidence in the city’s real estate on rents and asking prices.

“Sentiment is a major factor driving the UAE real estate market,” Jones Lang LaSalle noted in recent research. “Despite the Expo being seven years away, we would expect the news of Dubai’s successful bid to result in a major boost in short-term sentiment and increased interest in the real-estate sector.”

It has been estimated the Expo could boost Dubai's economic output by up to two per cent a year.

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