Construction & Real Estate
From The Report: Kuwait 2017
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With the country beginning to clear a backlog of major projects in energy, infrastructure and housing, the construction sector in Kuwait has seen a resurgence of activity in recent years. The government’s five-year National Development Plan committed to spend KD34bn ($112.5bn) over the 2015-20 period, and KD12bn ($39.7bn) worth of projects were signed off in the plan’s preliminary year. The country has seen its first successful construction project completed on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, and according to National Bank of Kuwait, there is a further KD10bn ($33.1bn) in PPP projects in the pipeline for schemes ranging from power and water to education, health and transport. Real Estate meanwhile accounts for 6% of Kuwait’s non-oil GDP with the impressive scale of real estate activity apparent from satellite images showing a new city in the country’s south being reclaimed from the sea over the course of 15 years. Several new communities being built by the government to provide homes for more than 100,000 Kuwaiti married couples, will provide ample new opportunities to develop residential, retail and commercial property in the years ahead.

This chapter contains interviews with Khaled Al Mashaan, Vice-Chairman and CEO, ALARGAN and Yasser Hassan Abul, Minister of State for Housing Affairs.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Foundations for the future: Kuwait is in the midst of an infrastructure construction boom
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With the country beginning to clear a backlog of major projects in energy, infrastructure and housing, the construction sector in Kuwait has seen a resurgence of activity in recent years. The government’s five-year National Development Plan committed to spend KD34bn ($112.5bn) over the 2015-20 period, and KD12bn ($39.7bn) worth of projects were signed off in the plan’s preliminary year. The country has seen its first successful construction project completed on a public-private partnership…

Interview

Market awareness: Khaled Al Mashaan, Vice-Chairman and CEO, ALARGAN, on influential trends and factors in the current market
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Interview: Khaled Al Mashaan Which segments are showing strength in the present real estate environment? KHALED AL MASHAAN: Currently the market is flat; however, this climate does present an excellent opportunity for the real estate sector. The main challenge is the limited availability of land released by the government to develop projects, a challenge that doesn’t look likely to end soon. Demand is indeed growing, and may have to turn to existing developments. Two types of assets remain strong:…

Analysis

Building health: Industry-leading hospitals are a high priority for the sector
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The opening of Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Hospital in 2017 will give Kuwait’s Ministry of Health (MoH) a new flagship medical centre that is reportedly the largest health facility in the Middle East and the sixth-largest in the world. It also sets a new benchmark for the provision of health care in Kuwait, as existing hospitals expand and new developments are built to improve the standard of medical help available to Kuwait’s citizens and residents. The 1200-bed Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Hospital…

Overview

Rising to the challenge: New projects in the pipeline are helping to tackle high demand for housing
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The impressive scale of Kuwait’s real estate sector can be seen from outer space in a time lapse video made from satellite images. These images show a new city in the country’s south being gradually reclaimed from the sea over the course of 15 years. Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City represents KD1.5bn ($5.1bn) worth of private investment by the La’ala Al Kuwait Investment Company to create an entirely new resort with residential units, shops, marinas and beaches for 90,000 people. However,…

Interview

Step forward: Yasser Hassan Abul, Minister of State for Housing Affairs, on successfully developing housing construction projects
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Interview: Yasser Hassan Abul How are public-private partnership (PPP) frameworks being developed to encourage private sector participation in housing construction projects? YASSER HASSAN ABUL: In order to drive private sector participation in the development of housing projects, the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) plans to adopt a PPP framework that relies on the existing legislation, while also following PPP project structuring best practices, and interacting closely with the private…

Analysis

Dream homes in sight: Ownership rates rise and market prices soften for the first time in years
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Home ownership has been on the rise in Kuwait, as the government has begun to deal with a house-building bottleneck that has locked many married couples out of the market. For Kuwait citizens a house was a birthright redeemed upon marriage. With 103,000 couples on the waiting list for a free government home in 2016, delays in government house-building schemes meant that many newlyweds could expect to wait until their 15th wedding anniversary for their dream of a family home to materialise.…