imported 2024-03-17 17:43:08
According to Citigroup (Middle East), approximately 60 percent of all real estate projects worth 3.5 trillion dollars underway or in the pipeline in the Middle East are located in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Amid ample demand from an ever young and ambitious population, property in the oil-rich kingdom is booming. But the run for climatised square meters in the desert adds fuels inflation in the biggest Gulf Arab country.
With the market regulator taking steps to give foreign institutions access to the Tadawul market in Riyadh, banks, fund managers and brokers in the region expect a boon and a boom for Saudi shares and new listings to come.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and oil are some of the oldest synonyms in contemporary history. But the kingdom has more to offer than black gold, and the government in Riyadh is working tenaciously to diversify the economy. “If you compare it by GDP, oil represents 85 percent in Saudi Arabia,” says Abdulrahim Al-Zamil, Chairman of the multi-industry conglomerate Zamil Group.
The tourism and service industry could be the providential answer to the pressing unemployment issues in the Kingdom. According to the country’s master economic and industrial development plan through the year 2025, the total Saudi labor force in 2009 consisted of 4,885,960 workers. That figure is projected to grow to 11,850,180 by the end of the planning period.
Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the best places to do business in the Middle East. In its ranking “Ease of Doing Business” Index 2011, the World Bank ranked 11th out of 183 countries. Saudi Arabia has made significant progress by moving up to 11th place from the 67th place in the global ranking it occupied in 2005.
Saudi Arabia is the 19th world’s largest economy and the biggest economy in the MENA region. The country is the world’s largest exporter of oil, with an estimated 8,865,000 barrels of oil per day production. The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 92.5% of budget revenues, 55% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings.
Despite Western media relentlessly branding Saudi Arabia an archaic, backwards-oriented Islamic monarchy, the kingdom has done bold steps which aim to get its population back to work by diversifying its energy-oriented economy, empowering women to study work and by embracing the digital age like few other Arab countries.
Saudi banks are not only earning money on oil trading. While one might suggest that Saudi lenders became big due to a windfall of the country’s revenues from energy exports, little is known about the Saudi role as the biggest capital market in the Arab world.
“The Saudi market is currently facing a very short supply of real estate properties, which will fuel the demand over the next few years. The gap we need to fill about 1.2 million units over the next 5 years, which shows you the size of our inventory and the potential for growth within the market,” says Majed Al Hogail, Managing Director of Rafal Real Estate Development Co.
