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29 March 2024

Dubai’s property market set to witness $1 billion influx

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

Dubai’s real estate market, which is witnessing a resurgence this year, will get another major shot in the arm when the $1-billion Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD)-Brookfield Dubai Real Estate Fund gets underway.

A move to start the fund was made on Wednesday with ICD and Brookfield Asset Management, the co-promoters of the fund, named Douglas Kirkman, Senior Vice-President of the Brookfield Property Group, as Chief Executive Officer of ICD-Brookfield Management Limited, the firm that will manage the fund.

“The fund, once formed, will pursue opportunities in the Dubai real estate sector with a particular focus on development opportunities,” the companies said.

In 2011, ICD and Brookfield had announced that they would each seed the $1 billion fund, having a life of 8 to 10 years, with $100 million in capital and later raise funds from a select group of local, regional and international investors.

In April 2012, the fund joined Dubai Land Department’s Tanmia initiative that aims to finish “incomplete” projects.

Khaled Al Bakhit, Chairman of ICD-Brookfield, had said: “We believe that this initiative will promote efficient collaboration between the department and interested investors in Dubai real estate, such as ourselves as participants in the programme, and will ultimately enhance real estate investment decision making.”

Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with over $175 billion in assets under management. The company is co-listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges and on NYSE Euronext.

ICD is the investment arm of the government of Dubai and holds stakes in over 30 companies, including Emaar Properties and Emirates Airlines.

Last year, total value of real estate transactions in Dubai rose by 8 per cent to touch Dh154 billion in 2012. Property experts have already predicted a broad-based market recovery in the emirate.

The growing investor confidence has propelled major developers such as Emaar Properties, Nakheel and Meraas to launch new projects.

Private developers too have joined the bandwagon. Damac Properties launched a tower in collaboration with Italy’s Fendi Casa, while under the Tanmia initiative Pacific Ventures, a private developer, restarted a project in Business Bay.

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