Qatar’s real estate sector achieved remarkable recognition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with its companies ranked among the region’s leading industry players by Forbes Magazine.
In the December edition of Forbes Middle East Magazine, Qatar-based real estate firms including Ezdan Holding Group, Qatari Diar and Barwa Real Estate Group have been ranked among the region’s top companies.
Forbes Middle East’s ‘Top 50 Real Estate Developers In MENA 2021’ list, features companies that have delivered some of the most significant projects in the region this year. The list was created on the basis of financials, reputation, company’s age, the value of projects completed, projects under construction, and the size of the landbank and units held by the company.
Qatari Diar has been ranked fourth in ‘Top 50 Real Estate Developers in MENA 2021’. Established in 2005, Qatari Diar was founded by the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund. It has a shared capital of $8 billion and 50 investment projects under development across 22 countries with a total investment value of around $35 billion as of 2020.
Forbes Middle East December 2021 edition ranked Ezdan Holding Group sixth among the top 50 real estate developers in MENA. Founded as a private company ‘Thani Bin Abdullah Housing Group’, changed its name to Ezdan Real Estate Company in 2007. In September 2021, the company reported total assets of $13.8 billion and $64.1 million in net profit for the nine months of the year.
Barwa Real Estate Group has been ranked eighth in the Forbes list. Barwa is 45 percent owned by Qatari Diar, a firm owned by the Qatar Investment Authority. It had total assets of $9.9 billion by the end of September 2021, marking an 8.5 percent increase from the $9.1 billion as of December 2020. Barwa operates 3.6 million square meters of total built space. It also owns Waseef Asset Management Company (Waseef), which provides asset, property and facilities management services to Barwa’s projects.
The real estate market is the cornerstone of any economy, the way it moves has a rippling effect across the country. In the last couple of years, the pandemic has caused significant turmoils in the real estate sector globally.
The Middle East’s real estate sector appears to be recovering fast, with property prices growing on the back of increased oil prices and government policies. The upcoming global events are also giving this asset class a boost in some GCC countries.
