Decentraland is a popular online community, or metaverse, in which users can engage with other avatars, walk around, and use cryptocurrencies to buy land, buildings, clothing and more.

Fueled by factors such as the global pandemic which led people to spend more time online and Facebook’s recent name change to Meta, digital environments like this one have rapidly increased in popularity over recent months.

With various industry professionals suggesting that metaverses such as Decentraland may be the gateway to the next version of the internet, the opportunities for real estate investors to expand into the digital sphere are becoming more abundant and profitable.  

THE RISE OF THE VIRTUAL HIGH STREET

Metaverse Group, a subsidiary of Tokens.com Corp, paid 618,000 MANA - Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency and the equivalent of USD 2.4 million - in exchange for a six thousand square-foot plot in the online world.

Located in Decentraland’s Fashion District, the virtual estate will be used to facilitate the company’s expansion into the digital fashion industry, Metaverse announced in a press release. The plot will be used to sell virtual clothing for avatars and host digital fashion shows in conjunction with clothing brands.

“Fashion is the next massive area for growth in the metaverse,” Sam Hamilton, head of content at the Decentraland Foundation, said in a statement released by the company last week.

Several luxury fashion brands including Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Gucci have previously expressed their interest in the metaverse by trading non-fungible tokens which are digital assets secured via blockchain technology.

RECORD-BREAKING REAL ESTATE

This sale of digital real estate in Decentraland is more than double the previous record of USD 193,000, set in June by a real estate investment firm. In this case, the buyers used the virtual real estate to build a shopping center to sell digital clothing.

According to Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, the dollar value of MANA has risen by more than 550 percent over the past month.

Despite the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies like MANA, the overall market has recorded an upward trend in the past year.

 

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Bahraini alternative investment company Investcorp has completed the acquisition of ten UK-based industrial assets for a total of GBP 56.7 million (USD 76.29 million), according to a company announcement.

The industrial assets cover 660,000 square feet, and were acquired via four transactions. They comprise three multi-let and seven single-let industrial properties. These are located in Bedford, Warrington, Stone, Gateshead, Stockton-on-Tees, Christchurch, Aberdeen, Skelmersdale, Cumbernauld, and Cannock in the UK, the statement noted.

With the acquisitions the total number of transactions made in the UK industrial and logistics market by Investcorp now stands at 15. These transactions involve a total of 53 properties covering a combined area of 4.6 million square feet, and with a total deployed investment of GBP 315 million across the last four years.

“The UK industrial sector is set to become one of the strongest drivers of real estate, as Covid-19 has rapidly accelerated the shift to online retailing and the resulting demand for industrial space,” Khulood Ebrahim, Real Estate Product Specialist at Investcorp, said. “With a diverse and well-leased base of tenants, we believe that this portfolio will continue to have the potential to generate solid cash flows for our investors.”

INVESTCORP IS LOOKING TO EXPAND ITS EUROPE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS 

Just in June this year, Investcorp acquired an office property in Salford Quays,  Anchorage 1 & 2. The property covers a total area of 149,168 square feet, and comprises two multi-let Grade A office buildings.

Apart from the UK, Investcorp has also invested in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Belgium through its European real estate arm. Its European business was launched in 2017, and has since invested about EUR 1 billion across 80 properties in these locations.

The company also made its first European exit in October this year. It sold its long leasehold interest in a multi-let commercial campus located in Germany to real estate development and investment company Art-Invest Real Estate. The property, Bürocampus Wangen (the Campus) located in Stuttgart, was Investcorp’s first investment in Germany.

Other European acquisitions this year include two industrial assets in Scotland and the West Midlands for EUR 15.5 million, and Via Mecenate, 91 (an office property near Milan’s Linate airport) for EUR 70 million. The latter marked the first investment in Italy by Investcorp.

The company is also looking to further expand its business in continental Europe, specifically in the industrial and urban office asset classes, Neil Hasson, Managing Director of Investcorp European Real Estate, had previously said.

The UAE real estate sector showed “positive signs of sustained recovery” during H1 this year, according to a new report by Kuwait Financial Centre ‘Markaz’.

According to the report, the UAE real estate sector saw transactions rebound during the first half of the year, driven by the vaccine roll-out, reopening of the economy, rising oil prices, events such as Expo 2020, and attractive yields in the sector. Going forward this is expected to result in a price increase, the report said.

The report also pointed towards investor-friendly initiatives, such as the golden visa and 100% foreign ownership of companies, that have resulted in positive sentiments for the UAE real estate sector.

Meanwhile, mortgage lending reforms, which include increasing mortgage lending limits by 5% last year, and removing property and mortgage transfer fees in Abu Dhabi, have further helped boost the sector. Dubai has also taken special steps to restrict supply through a new Real Estate Regulatory Agency law that raises upfront construction cost deposits to 50%, from 20%.

UAE REAL ESTATE SEES GROWING INVESTOR INTEREST 

Real estate prices in the UAE real estate market have remained depressed over the years due to a chronic oversupply. However, investors' interest is on the uptick on account of lower real estate prices, cheap and easy credit, and a recovering economy, the report said.

The number of transactions especially picked pace in H1 2021, especially in the secondary market. Resale transactions by value stood at AED 46.6 billion for the first half, nearly matching annual totals for 2019 (AED 48.8 billion) and 2020 (AED 49.9 billion). The primary market recorded sale transactions worth AED 15.1 billion for the period.

Residential gross rental yields stood at 5.8% for Dubai and 6% for Abu Dhabi, one of the highest across the world. For comparison, residential gross rental yields in Moscow stood at 4.5%, Cape Town at 3.9%, Singapore at 3.3%, and New York at 2.9%.

Demand for villas in the UAE real estate sector continued to rise, with prices going up 10% in Dubai and 6% in Abu Dhabi, as compared to the same period last year.

For the office sector, new supply of 70,000 square metres in Dubai and 18,000 square metres in Abu Dhabi is expected for delivery in H2. Meanwhile, office rental rates decreased by 1% in Dubai and 2% in Abu Dhabi year on year.

The retail market remains “subdued,” the report said, with the market remaining tenant-led. Meanwhile, the hospitality market saw occupancy pick up, with 58% hotel occupancy year to date May 2021 in Dubai, 61% in Abu Dhabi.

Al Mulla Engineering and Grasshopper Energy have partnered together to provide clean energy infrastructure in Kuwait, according to a recent statement.

Al Mulla Engineering, which is a part of private Kuwaiti conglomerate Al Mulla Group, will work with Grasshopper Energy to deliver clean energy solutions across multiple sectors in Kuwait. The statement did not clarify what these sectors would be, or what the agreement is valued at.

Grasshopper Energy is a Canada-headquartered fully integrated clean energy company. It currently holds USD 1.8 billion in clean energy assets, along with a global development pipeline of USD 6.5 billion.

The partnership will enable Al Mulla Engineering to diversify its product and service offerings, the statement noted, driving its expansion efforts while building clean energy capacity in Kuwait.

“The combination of Al Mulla Engineering, with its over 65 years of experience in offering engineering, procurement, construction, operation, maintenance, and financing services for a variety of clean energy projects, and Grasshopper Energy’s global footprint in development, construction and operations of solar energy plants and storage technologies, will help support a variety of clean energy projects in Kuwait achieve their goals for a greener, more sustainable future,” said Anfal Al Mulla, Managing Director of Al Mulla Engineering.

The partnership between the two companies is the latest in a string of clean energy projects emerging in the Middle East, as local economies accelerate the drive to diversify away from oil.

Clean energy efforts in the Middle East

One of the biggest clean energy projects currently underway in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia’s zero-carbon city NEOM. The USD 500 billion planned megacity project will run entirely on clean energy.

Saudi Arabia also announced earlier this year that it would be joining a consortium of countries for a global clean energy initiative called Mission Innovation 2.0. The initiative focuses on enabling a decade of clean energy innovation, and neighbouring UAE has also joined the collective.

Meanwhile, the UAE launched its first green hydrogen project in May this year. The solar-powered industrial green hydrogen plant was launched in Dubai, at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

The park itself is expected to be the world’s largest single-site solar park upon completion, as Dubai aims to bump up the share of clean energy in its power capacity to 75%.

Egypt has also made efforts in this space, with a number of wind farms in the works by the Gulf of Suez through the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model.

Bahrain-based global alternative investment firm Arcapita has launched a new real estate joint venture with US real estate investment firm Arden Group, according to a statement by the company. The new venture by Arcapita and Arden Group intends to build an industrial portfolio of USD 2 billion in assets under management, spread across the top 25 US industrial markets.

The joint venture will focus on acquiring multi-tenant urban US industrial properties.

The joint venture by Arcapita and Arden Group will be seeded by a portfolio of over seven million square feet. This will be spread across 32 properties and 1,100 tenants, from nine markets.

“The overall US industrial market is driven by powerful long-term tailwinds and sustained capital inflows, generating growing investor demand in the multi-tenant sub-sector,” Brian Hebb, MD and Head of the US real estate team at Arcapita, said. “The aggregation plans for this joint venture will allow us to build a sizeable market share within a highly fragmented sector.”

ARCAPITA AND ARDEN GROUP HAVE SO FAR ACQUIRED 18 PROPERTIES FOR USD 550 MILLION

So far, Arcapita and Arden Group’s joint venture has an AUM of over USD 800 million. It closed on an initial portfolio that is valued at over USD 550 million. It will further be closing on properties worth USD 250 million in the near term, the statement said.

The USD 550 million portfolio includes a total of 18 industrial properties, covering about five million square feet of space. The industrial parks are located in Atlanta, Charlotte, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis.

The joint venture targets in-fill warehouses, which the statement said were low in new supply. This was a result of a limited availability of undeveloped land around urban centres.

“Infill industrial facilities are critical in the US supply chain and have become increasingly important given the acceleration of logistics and business services. We intend to capitalise on strong US demand from a growing variety of tenants by providing institutional quality facilities in strategic locations,” Shike Goedar, President and CIO of Arden Logistics Parks said.

The partnership between Arcapita and Arden Group aims to capitalise on a growing demand for this asset class, in the backdrop of rising rents in the multi-tenant sub-sector.

Further, the joint venture will leverage its tech-based operating platform to “disrupt the decentralised, local ownership groups that characterise this asset class,” the statement said.

The joint venture portfolio is largely financed through a CMBS financing and a Revolving Acquisition Facility. These are both led by Goldman Sachs.

_{Photo credit: www.arabianbusiness.com/gcc/bahrain/}

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Kuwait-based  Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company has won the contract for the construction and maintenance of mixed-use development Commercial District, within the Hessah Project at Hessah AlMubarak district. The contract is valued at nearly KWD 42.6 million, or USD 139 million, according to a statement.

The mixed-use development will feature residential towers and apartment hotels, offices and commercial spaces, medical clinics and health clubs, retail facilities, as well as restaurant and cafe outlets.

It has been conceptualised by Nikken Sekkei, a Japan-headquartered architecture, engineering, and planning firm, along with Kuwaiti consultancy PACE, the statement said.

The contract for the mixed-use development was awarded by MENA Homes Real Estate Company, an associate company of Kuwaiti real estate developer URC. URC the real estate wing of KIPCO, a MENA-based holding company. This is the first ever mixed-use development in Kuwait being developed by KIPCO.

“URC is proud to develop this all-inclusive and mixed-use commercial hub by 2023. The Commercial District completes the overall Hessah Project, which comprises residential and commercial components at a total investment value of KWD 250 million. The project witnessed significant demand for its residential components since the start of the development, selling 59% of units in Hessah Towers and 25% of units in Byout Hessah, and has recently received prestigious international awards,” Mazen Issam Hawwa, URC’s Vice Chairperson and Group CEO, said.

THE MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT IS ONE LEG OF THE HESSAH PROJECT

The Commercial District will have a built-up area of 145,250 square meters. Of this, leasable and saleable area (including offices, clinics, serviced apartments, retail stores, food and beverage outlets, and an integrated community centre) comprises 46,689 square meters.

The mixed-use development is one of three components that make up the Hessah AlMubarak District, the statement said. The other two are the 40-storey-high twin luxury high-rises Hessah Towers, and the mid-rise Byout Hessah residential community.

Hessah Towers has a built-up area of about 70,000 square metres, and will be Kuwait’s first-ever private residential district, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the high end Byout Hessah will feature 40 luxury four-bedroom townhouses, as well as two 12-floor residential buildings (with 104 two-bedroom units including 7 penthouses).

Other popular mixed use development projects in Kuwait include Al Andalus in Hawally district, The Marina by Gensler in Kuwait City, and Al Khiran at Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City.

_{Photo credit: www.constructionweekonline.com/}

 

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Danube Properties has launched its first project in Dubai, Skyz Tower, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the company. The Skyz Tower, a Mediterranean-themed high-rise residential tower in Dubai, is valued at AED 475 million (USD 129 million).

The launch of the residential tower takes Danube Properties’ development portfolio to over 7,000 units at a combined development value surpassing AED 5 billion (USD 1.36 billion). Of this, AED 1.1 billion (nearly USD 300 million) worth of units are expected to be delivered by the end of 2021, the statement said.

Skyz Tower is being developed at the Arjan master planned community in Dubai. Sales of the residential tower have opened.

"The launch of the new project comes after a lot of thinking and due diligence - due to the pandemic. It is being launched at a time when we have seen an increase in demand for new homes. However, we are very confident of the fast sell-out of the project due to growing demand for new off-line properties,” Rizwan Sajan, Founder and Chairman of Danube Group.

The Skyz Tower comes with 808 units, retail outlets and recreational facilities, the statement said. The residential tower features a series of 'external gardens’ that are connected via an informal route.

Other facilities include a retail arcade, games room, infinity pool, lilly pool with water beds, viewing deck, BBQ area, jacuzzi lounge, business centre and an elevated Sky Jogging Track, amongst others.

THE SKYZ RESIDENTIAL TOWER JOINS THREE OTHERS TO BE LAUNCHED BY DANUBE

Sajan also said that three other ongoing projects will be handed over the next three months. These include Bayz, which has a sales value of AED 450 million, Miraclz, at AED 400 million, Lawnz, valued at AED 550 million and still in the process of being completed.

The three properties will take Danube Properties’ total delivered units to 4,281, with a sales value of over AED 3.5 billion.

This would bring the total number of projects under Danube Properties to 16, the statement showed.

Danube Properties is part of Dubai-based conglomerate Danube Group, which has businesses across building materials, home decor and real estate development.

Skyz Tower is part of a lineup of residential towers coming up in the UAE. Others in this line include the AED 800 (USD 217.8 million) Urban Oasis residential tower, the USD 1 million Dubai Creek Tower, and the Palm Tower in Palm Jumeirah.

_{Photo credit: https://danubeproperties.ae/projects/skyz-by-danube, www.gulfbusiness.com/}

 

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The second edition of the Cityscape Intelligence Real Estate Power List has been revealed today (11.11.21), recognising 20 of the regional tourism, real estate, and governmental figure heads who have been pushing sustainability to the top of their agenda, and each demonstrated leadership, forward thinking and innovation over the past 12 months.

As many industries are still finding their way out of the pandemic, tourism, real estate, travel and logistics are all bouncing back and have found a resurgence due to high vaccination rates, events such as the Expo 2020, and groundbreaking government reforms and public-private partnerships that have helped markets and industries weather the storm.

Sustainability is one of the key themes for the 2021 list. As climate change is becoming harder and harder to ignore some of the regional developers are embracing this change and are taking it one step further with their developments more focused towards regeneration.

John Pagano, CEO of the Red Sea Development Company, and a 2021 Power List nominee, is pioneering this approach. As the world's most ambitious regenerative tourism project, the Red Sea Project is a luxury destination created around one of the world's hidden natural treasures. The project will set new standards in sustainable development, pioneering a new relationship between luxury tourism and the natural environment and with Pagano at the helm, has pledged to contribute a 30 percent net conservation benefit to the project area by 2040.

Another leading sustainability project causing waves across the globe is Saudi Arabia’s NEOM. The mega project’s CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr, a key mention from the power list, has made it his mission to create a ‘city of the future’ with the city priding itself on its aim to run completely off renewable energy. NEOM plays a vital role in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 agenda and is set to become a benchmark for sustainable construction and future city planning.

There is no bigger event in the world right now than Expo 2020. One of the standout names on this 2021 list is Reem Al Hashimy, Managing Director of Expo 2020, responsible for leading the charge in organising the mega event dubbed the biggest show on earth, which formally opened its doors to the world on October 1^st. Al Hashimy was instrumental in Dubai’s winning bid to host Expo 2020, and as well as being Director General for the Expo 2020, she is also the UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, a position she has held since 2016.

Since the announcement of Expo 2020, there has been an increase of residential and commercial development at the site. New shopping centres, hotels and over 400 restaurants as well as luxury housing and cycling paths, will be completed prior to the highly anticipated event.

Ian Albert, CEO Colliers – MENA discussed at this week’s Cityscape Summit the staggering increase in real estate investment and how, as an asset class, rental collection rates make it a chief focus for institutional investors and funds.

According to Albert, the increase in residential investment is due to it being a good cash business: “Rental collection rates of various investment funds in 2021 was sitting at 95-97%. Industrial and logistics remain quite high at 85-87%, and office space is around 70-75% rent collected. So, if you look at it from a cash-on-cash business, it wins. The UAE market total available for foreign investment is somewhere around US$350-450 billion worth of assets out there now that foreign investors can buy now in this market. If you look at returns in Dubai, capital growth is sitting at about 30%, with yields at around 5%, therefore clearly outperforming some of the key markets in Europe.”

Despite the recent challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic the ‘UAE & MENA Real Estate Report’, which was produced by Informa Markets in 2021 found that 74 per cent of respondents are anticipating a recovery for the MENA region’s real estate industry within one to two years since 2020. A key proponent of this growth is regional mega-events such as Expo 2020.

Speaking ahead of the Expo 2020 opening in October, Al Hashimy said; “This period of rapid, unprecedented change has brought with it a pressing need to rethink the way we exist and is further accelerated by a global health crisis that has touched each and every individual on Earth. While 2020 may be remembered as a year that changed us forever, it has also given us a tremendous opportunity to come together as a global society and find answers to our most pressing challenges.”

Another key figure on the list for 2021 is HE Sultan Butti Bin Mejren, Director General, Dubai Land Department (DLD). Leading the charge at the DLD since 2006, Bin Mejren has overseen the implementation of a number of property laws in order to protect the interests of the UAE and reinforce confidence in the real estate market to investors.

Not only has Bin Mejren spearheaded the departments ambitious digital offering, including the Dubai REST app developed by DLD to be the first digital platform for real estate in the region, he also led DLD to achieve their 100 percent "Paperless Stamp" from Digital Dubai, which seeks to achieve several strategic goals, most notably the consolidation of Dubai's efforts towards its smart and digital transformation. The DLD recorded 51,414 real estate transactions worth over USD $47.6bn in 2020.

Other prominent real estate leaders include; Abdullah Ali Obaid Al Hamli, Chairman, Deyaar; Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, Chief Executive Officer of Arada, and the Group Chief Executive Officer of KBW Investments; Naaman Atallah, Chief Executive Officer, Nakheel and Hussain Sajwani, Founder and Chairman, DAMAC.

The list has been curated by Cityscape Intelligence, the region’s premier real estate market analysis portal, with the final 20 names selected on nominations by industry professionals and data collected by Cityscape Intelligence.

Chris Speller, Group Director, Informa Markets, said: “This is our second edition of the Cityscape Intelligence Real Estate Power List, and once again we have seen a remarkable response from the industry to help us identify who made a difference in the past 12 months. If we look at where we are now compared to a year ago, Expo 2020 is in full swing, travel is slowly returning to positive levels and the real estate market, not just Dubai is seeing an incredible resurgence across some asset classes and markets. The 2021 Real Estate Power list nominees have all helped shape this growth in one way or another, and we are proud to be able to do our part in recognising them.”

Regional representation included; John Pagano, CEO, The Red Sea Development Company; Khaled Abbas, Deputy Minister, Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities for National Projects, Egypt and Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO, NEOM.  

Strong industry response for nominations led the Cityscape Intelligence team to include some of the region’s leading real estate consultancies. Making the top 20 this year are Ian Albert, CEO, MENA, Colliers; Thierry Delvaux, CEO, MEA, JLL and Youcef Betraoui, Chief Executive

2021 Cityscape Intelligence Real Estate Power List*:

• Abdullah Ali Obaid Al Hamli, Chairman, Deyaar
• Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, Chief Executive Officer of Arada, and the Group Chief Executive Officer of KBW Investments
• HE Falah Al Ahbabi, Chairman, Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT), Abu Dhabi
• Hussain Sajwani, Founder and Chairman, DAMAC
• Ian Albert, CEO, MENA Colliers
• John Pagano, CEO, The Red Sea Development Company
• Kerem Cengiz, Managing Director, LWK+PARTNERS
• Khaled Abbas, Deputy Minister, Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities for National Projects, Egypt
• Khalid Al Malik, CEO, Dubai Properties & MD, Dubai Holding
• Khalifa Al Zaffin, Executive Chairman, Dubai Aviation City Corporation (DACC) & Dubai South
• HE Marwan Bin Jassim Al Sarkal, Executive Chairman, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority
• HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) & Commissioner General for Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Well-Being
• Naaman Atallah, Chief Executive Officer, Nakheel
• Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO, NEOM
• Rahail Aslam, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Select Group
• HE Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai
• HE Sultan Butti Bin Mejren, Director General, Dubai Land Department
• Talal Al Dhiyebi, CEO, Aldar Properties
• Thierry Delvaux, CEO, MEA, JLL
• Youcef Betraoui, Chief Executive Officer, Land Sterling

*This list is in no particular order and has been put together based on nominations and data collected by Cityscape Intelligence