JEDDAH – Projects planned and underway across the Gulf region now total more than $2 trillion, up 12 percent on the year-earlier period, Citi's MENA Construction Projects Tracker revealed. The report said all markets across the GCC had risen, mostly driven by new project announcements. For the main markets in the Middle East and North Africa, the project pipeline was up five percent to $308 billion since October, the report said. It added that the growth was driven by Iraq (up 29 percent), the UAE (up 15 percent) and Saudi Arabia (up four percent). Early stage projects were up 17 percent to $655 billion over the same period, mostly driven by the UAE (up 127 percent). Saudi Arabia's planned projects are up 19 percent, but has slowed, the report noted. Yet it remains the largest GCC market with projects totaling $790 billion. “To some degree we would expect some slowing of growth given the size of the market,” Citi said. The report showed that Kuwait projects were up 16 percent to $206 billion but added that delays were a key risk due to geopolitical factors. Qatar's planned projects are up six percent year-on-year to $228 billion while growth in Bahrain has slowed to stand at $64 billion and Oman is up six percent to $122 billion. The report further said this is the first period since the first quarter of 2010 that the UAE has shown growth in its construction market which is up six percent to $614 billion. “This is driven by the recently announced Dubai mega real estate projects,” it added. In November, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced plans to build a new multi-billion dollar city project called Mohammed Bin Rashid City. It will include the world's biggest shopping mall, 100 hotels, a Universal family theme park and a park that is a third bigger than Hyde Park in London. In the same month, Dubai approved the development of a AED10 billion destination that will feature five distinct theme parks based on movies, animals and fun characters that shall appeal to all demographics. “For the UAE focus is now on a potential revival in Dubai. While real estate development spend is rising we believe the key bottleneck for the emirate remains financing,” the report noted. It added that preliminary stage projects in the UAE now stood at $199 billion, up 127 percent from October, driven by Sheikh Mohammed's announcement. “To note, this project is yet to reach the feasibility stage. Given Dubai's upcoming major debt refinancing we believe this project is at risk of delay,” Citi said. Citi said the value of cancelled and delayed projects in MENA currently stands at $1,449 billion. — SG
