16 n 25 May 2008 n TheBusinessWeekly
corporate focus
Property House invests $1b in UAE realty
Plans afoot
to go global
By Jim Paolo Joquico
The just-launched Property House
Real Estate, which is an offshoot
of the Dubai-based PH Holdings, a
specialist investment group in the
UAE with sizeable investments in
almost every commercial sector,
has big plans worth $1 billion in
its real estate portfolio, Muham-
mad Nazir, CEO and managing
director of the company, has said.
Property House, which has sev-
eral projects currently in the pipe-
line, will soon be unveiling resi-
dential and office projects such as
the Barbaro and Sundance, which
will be located in the downtown
Majan area of Dubailand. Sales
for these developments will com-
mence over the next two weeks,
while the Al Helio development
offering has already commenced.
Mirror Walk, another residential
project, will begin sales within the
next three weeks.
Al Helio Downtown is Proper-
ty House’s latest project that will
transform Ajman downtown into
an independent city. It will be a
mixed-use development to house
schools, colleges, universities and
a hospital, plus residential and
commercial spaces. Furthermore,
most of the company’s projects will
be environmentally sound and will
concentrate on energy efficiency.
“The buildings will be eco-
friendly. We also focus on energy
efficiency. Water has to be recy-
Mirror Walk
Amit Kochar and Muhamed Nazir
cled. Even the glass, the way it is
positioned, is being considered in
consultation with our architects in
Spain and Germany to make sure
that we optimise energy efficiency
in all our buildings. We are com-
bating the green house effect and
doing our part against the global
warming issue,” Nazir said.
Innovative propositions
Elaborating on the company’s
plans, Amit Kochar, general man-
ager for projects, told The Busi-
ness Weekly that the company
was considering global expansion
at this stage itself although it is
focusing on its core business in the
UAE for the time being.
Seeking to introduce innova-
tive and functional architectural
investment propositions in the
UAE, Property House will look to
be placed among the region’s top
five real estate companies in the
next two years. The company has
been busy acquiring land in the
region and features a land port-
folio of approximately six million
square feet in Dubai and Ajman.
Commenting on ways to
achieving the company’s plan to
become one of the top five in the
real estate market, Kochar said,
“We plan to do this, basically, by
delivering on what we commit.
We honour our commitments with
clients and investors. That’s the
key in our ambition to become
dominant in the region.”
28 pc marketshare target
Speaking about the cover-
age entailed by occupying one of
the top positions in real estate,
Kochar said, “The market share
which we are aiming for is 28 to
32 per cent.”
While this is a very ambitious
claim, Property House will differ-
entiate itself from other property
developers and real estate compa-
nies through the studies on prop-
erty supply and demand which it
conducted in the past.
“The products that we will be
presenting soon have been envi-
sioned and studied many years
back. We have also studied the
supply and demand of properties
for the next few years. And as
far as the supply and demand are
concerned, it’s very much maxed,
very much maintained and closely
monitored by the Government,”
Kochar said.
In addition, Kochar said the
image that it will project to clients
and investors will be, in a subtle
way, different and will help them
stand out in the industry. “We are
a normal, regular real estate com-
pany that will deliver on what we
commit. We are black and white
regarding our business and in-
vestment strategies. By black and
white, I mean very clear and very
transparent,” he added.
DESCO joint venture
The company aims at becom-
ing one of the leading players in
the industry. Prior to the formal
launch, Property House made
significant investments in the Al
Helio Downtown mini city devel-
opment in Ajman, through a joint
venture with DESCO, the South
Korean master developer. Prop-
erty House Real Estate will also
be employing in its race to the top
its decade-old sister entities which
include MN Developers, MN En-
terprises, and Property House in
Istanbul, Turkey.
Nazir said, “The leadership
in the UAE has created a buoy-
ant real estate sector that offers
unparalleled investment oppor-
tunities. Our own analysis and
feedback from the investment
community in Pakistan, India and
China as well as other emerging
markets such as South Korea and
Brazil have revealed that inves-
tors are interested in tapping these
lucrative opportunities. As an in-
novative business house, Property
House will act as a vehicle to at-
tract these investments.”
Nazir told TBW that “policies
and the UAE government support
for infrastructure and construc-
tion facilitate investment in real
estate, and due to this, we are
confident that the growth will con-
tinue for the next decade and the
market will be sustainable. We
see no imminent bubble bursting
or any problems happening within
the next 10 years.”
“Dubai is a top tourist destina-
tion in the Middle East and in the
world, and we feel confident that
what we are doing at the moment,
by launching Property House at
this time, in 2008, as long as we
deliver our projects and we stick
to our investors and provide the
right products and vehicles for
them, will make Property House
realise success.”