Arabian Gulf property sector enjoys positive market prospects

Market prospects for the Arabian Gulf property sector are broadly positive, contributing to an overall expectation of ratings stability, although different markets are at different stages of development, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new Industry Outlook report.

Despite a number of sector risks, the rating agency anticipates sustained real estate market growth in the region, based on fundamental factors that indicate that demand for new housing, office and retail space is likely to outpace supply in the medium term.

“Supported by rapid economic and population growth, the Arabian Gulf region today incorporates some of the most unique and ambitious projects in the world, limited not to individual sites, but indeed creating entirely new cities and land stretches,” said Philipp Lotter, Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Middle East Limited in Dubai (DIFC) and author of the report.

“However, accurate analysis of the market is made extremely difficult by the still sketchy nature of official information, only gradually evolving regulation and the significant differences in market estimates, depending on the source.”

The evolution of the Gulf’s real estate sector remains closely tied with government support or initiatives, which is generally supportive of ratings, either through direct support — in the case of the large government-owned or government-sponsored master developers that comprise a sizeable proportion of the sector — or through general institutional support.

“The Gulf real estate market has a number of characteristics that make it unique compared with more mature markets and need to be considered when rating companies. The two overriding features are the large-scale availability of land, which is made available to many master developers either for free or at very favourable prices, and the significant growth of the markets, fuelled both by speculative investors but also more sound fundamental factors, which have allowed developers to fund large parts of their projects from off-plan pre-sales proceeds,” Lotter explained.

On the other hand, many property companies in the Gulf are heavily exposed, both regionally to a certain country or even city, and operationally to a handful of large projects. “This exposure to a single market acts as the largest constraint on companies’ creditworthiness,” Lotter added.

Moody’s currently rates six companies that, directly or indirectly, engage in the Arabian Gulf property industry. Four of these are based in Dubai (UAE), one is in Qatar and one in Saudi Arabia. All of them build, develop and, in most cases, maintain and sell commercial or residential real estate units.