Construction & Real Estate
From The Report: Bahrain 2017
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With a raft of measures aimed at improving infrastructure, industry, housing and connectivity, the government of Bahrain has a $32bn investment strategy to accelerate economic diversification in the kingdom, providing abundant opportunities for the country’s construction sector. Even against a backdrop of falling oil prices that has seen the cancellation or deceleration of infrastructure investment in some neighbouring economies, Bahrain’s construction businesses have continued to outperform most other sectors. Some neighbouring GCC countries have stood by their 2011 commitment to finance $10bn in mega-projects in Bahrain over 10 years through the Gulf Development Fund (GDF), which has allowed construction to press ahead on some schemes despite a projected budget deficit of $4bn posted by the kingdom for both 2015 and 2016. According to Bahrain’s Economic Development Board, the aggregate value of GDF projects under way by August 2016 reached $4bn. This included a $1.1bn airport expansion project.

This chapter contains interviews with Faisal Faqeeh, Chairman, Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company; and Mohammed Khalil Alsayed, CEO, Ithmaar Development Company.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Fired up: Unlike many of its neighbours, the kingdom is seeing a boom in construction projects
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With a raft of measures aimed at improving infrastructure, industry, housing and connectivity, the government of Bahrain has a $32bn investment strategy to accelerate economic diversification in the kingdom, providing abundant opportunities for the country’s construction sector. Even against a backdrop of falling oil prices that has seen the cancellation or deceleration of infrastructure investment in some neighbouring economies, Bahrain’s construction businesses have continued to outperform…

Analysis

Home sweet home: Efforts and progress in meeting demand for housing
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Thousands of Bahraini citizens are set to move into new properties in 2017 as the government makes good on its pledge to provide 25,000 new homes by the end of 2018. The houses and flats have been funded through the Ministry of Housing (MoH), the Gulf Development Fund and through public-private partnership (PPPs) agreements. The homes are built to an agreed specification and then handed to the MoH, which allocates them to citizens on its waiting list. Developers are also working with the…

Interview

Unlocking potential: Faisal Faqeeh, Chairman, Bin Faqeeh Real Estate Investment Company, on making Bahrain more attractive for investment
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Interview: Faisal Faqeeh How would you describe the growth prospects of Bahrain’s real estate market in 2016? FAISAL FAQEEH: My main complaint now would be that investors are being overly cautious and just trying to watch the market and see how it behaves before spending any of their own money. Banks are not financing real estate projects, claiming they are too risky, while individual investors are also biding their time. This means that in Bahrain now there are really only four or five major…

Interview

Breakthroughs in building: Mohammed Khalil Alsayed, CEO, Ithmaar Development Company, on the future of public and private sector real estate
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Interview: Mohammed Khalil Alsayed Having pioneered the first housing public-private partnership (PPP) in the GCC, what improvements would you suggest for the future? MOHAMMED KHALIL ALSAYED: At the outset, we need to hail the vision and thinking for this breakthrough policy initiative. We have reason to believe that the earlier PPP model drew heavily from the UK’s private finance initiative experience, which while being a reasonable start, could be better customised to suit local conditions.…

Overview

Up and coming: New supply is helping to buoy the market and defy regional economic trends
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The kingdom is set to see a number of residential, retail and hospitality properties launched in 2017 as the country’s real estate sector pushes ahead with new developments. The macroeconomic issues affecting the country and its GCC neighbours, as governments in the region trim expenditure in response to the global slump in oil prices, do not appear to have dented the confidence of developers or buyers in some sectors in the Bahraini market. This comes despite a fall in the value of actual…