It’s all about Jobs in Middle East

Not the Jobs who sadly left us too early, but employment. Various recent studies have pointed out how employment in the region and particularly the Middle East is on the rise. According to findings released by The Monster Employment Index (monster.com), Middle East online recruitment in September escalated to its highest levels in the past 12 months.

The findings of the index show that major economies like KSA, UAE and Qatar showed ongoing positive momentum in hiring trends in sectors like retail trade, logistics and their related occupation groups like finance and accounting.

What does this have to do with real-estate?

Increase in job opportunity has a direct impact on the demand for real-estate. One of the reasons why companies are able to attract more talent to the region is because accommodation costs are now affordable. New expatriate workers who had previously found it hard to save in the region because of rising cost of housing, now have a wide variety of options available.

Adding to this is the easier terms for buyers and leasers from banks and real-estate agencies. What was previously thought of as a hassle or nightmare – finding decent accommodation – has now become simple. Government authorities such as RERA in Dubai have also brought more transparency into the paperwork of how contracts are drawn up and implemented. Resident’s associations are becoming more vocal and are monitoring their expenses to keep maintenance costs low. All these factors are bringing in a new found momentum to the real-estate sector.

Sure, there might be some of you out there thinking, Kabir Mulchandani is in the real estate business, he will link anything to show demand is rising. So don’t just take Kabir’s word for it. Let’s see what the California State University Fullerton, has to say about this.
Researchers Youguo Liang and Willard McIntosh found that, “Employment growth contributes to property markets return in the short run.” If employment keeps rising, growth will rise too. In a highly expatriate employment driven market like ours, this has a huge impact on real-estate markets.

On occupation six-month trends, Monster survey shows  that critical areas such as healthcare (up three per cent) have been registering successive month-on-month growth since June ’11. We still have a long way to go before we reach the pre 2008 growth levels but we have certainly crossed the dip.

Adding to this, the UAE improved its global ranking by two to reach 33 this year in the World Bank's annual Doing Business report. The new report by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World — assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 183 economies. The report finds that 11 out of 18 economies in the Middle East and North Africa improved regulations for entrepreneurs in the past year, despite political and economic uncertainty in the region.

The danger of being optimistic is that unlike a pessimist you don’t get the luxury of being pleasantly proved wrong. But it’s one risk Kabir Mulchandani is willing to take. 2008 was a long time ago, jobs and low costs are bringing in more people and this will fuel more demand. And this time we are better prepared to manage our real-estate market.

Kabir Mulchandani
Skai Holdings
Dubai-UAE

Kabir Mulchandani Gets Clean Chit - Gulf News

Dynasty Al Zarooni Real Estate is considering legal action against some Indian publications and those behind an alleged 'smear campaign' to malign its reputation, officials said. The campaign has allegedly been launched by a former employee of Kabir Mulchandani, chairman of Dynasty Zarooni, who was fired for alleged 'wrongdoing', Gulf News has learnt.

Two Indian publications ran reports referring to some investors' complaint that "he [Mulchandani] had misled them by showing a different property and selling them another". One of the reports said "Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Authority [Rera] is probing Mulchandani's operations after nearly 30 NRIs from India, Russia and UK complained online".

Dynasty Zarooni, formed in 2005, is a joint venture between Hilal Al Zarooni and Kabir Mulchandani. The company has been engaged in developing, buying and selling residential and commercial properties to wholesale investors and cashing in on soaring prices and growing demand that fetched solid returns.

"Dynasty Zarooni, having a real estate portfolio in excess of Dh20 billion, has been the target of a series of false accusations in relation to complaints from investors, with regards to their Ebony & Ivory project in Jumeirah Lakes Towers," the company said in an e-mailed statement.

The project is being developed by Al Fajer Properties, a leading property developer in the UAE, managed by its president Shaikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum.Over the past week there have been a number of internet blog stories and these culminating with a article in the Indian media, incorrectly quoting Rera officials, the company said.

The Ebony & Ivory development project is a Dh2.7 billion project, which was originally sold out within hours of its launch. "To date, the construction of all of the towers being developed by Al Fajer Properties is progressing rapidly," the statement said.Meanwhile, the Rera has given Dynasty Zarooni a clean chit.

"Dynasty Al Zarooni Real Estate has no violations relating to the registration of property brokers until August 25, 2008," Rera said in a letter yesterday, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News.Hilal Al Zarooni, president of Dynasty Zarooni, told Gulf News, "We are pursuing legal action against those who are behind this campaign that is damaging our reputation."These imposters have not only targeted Dynasty Zarooni, but the UAE real estate market as a whole. The imposters should be brought to justice." he said.

Gulf News - By Saifur Rahman (Business Editor)

Kabir Mulchandani
Dubai-UAE 

To Invest or Not to Invest that is the Question? Kabir Mulchandani

The recent Arab Spring shook the Middle East. However, the UAE remains stable and safe, with business activities at a normal level. There as been no such uprising in the region and the country has become a default refuge from unrest. These aspects have lead to a trend slightly different than the usual: more traffic from Arab countries to the UAE and more business.

Europe’s growing sovereign-debt crisis and the unstable US economy could well be the cause of this “regionalization” – Arabs investing their petrodollars in other Arab countries, the UAE being the centre of such activity. Dubai has seen none of the violence that has destabilized the region. Its hotel, retail and residential real estate sectors are enjoying a boost from general stability of the country.

According to Reuters, anecdotal evidence suggests that Arabs, middle class and above, are buying Dubai property to hedge their risks in other countries. Similarly in India, a weaker currency is encouraging Indian expatriates in the Gulf to invest in domestic markets. According to the Economic Times, non-resident Indians, especially those living in the Gulf, have invested about Rs 75 crore in August and September of this year in the region, the largest pay-in in over 2 and a half years.

Recently, Russell Investments classified the UAE as an emerging market as opposed to the frontier market designation given by MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) and Standard and Poor’s. The UAE is the first Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country to graduate from frontier to emerging market status within the Russell Global Index series.

The market in the UAE seems to be welcoming investments. In addition, articles say that those willing to invest in the UAE, have a longer term approach to investing and are not phased by short-term market fluctuations. This clearly demonstrates the relatively higher comparative value of investing in the UAE over other parts of the world.

According to the UAE Investor Attitudes Index as published in UAE daily – The National, about 60 per cent of the investors surveyed said it was a good time to put money in gold, and half said fixed-rate bank deposits were smart investments. The survey was based on interviews with over 750 people in the UAE, who are market investors, majority whom were expatriates.

Dubai’s roar and rumble has always been connected to the real estate market. There is still over-supply in the market and investors seem to not want to invest heavily in real estate. Though there are still a number of challenges to overcome, it seems stability is on its way up.

To add to that my own experience: I transfer property every day. My optimism comes from real demand and real purchasers with real money.  I see a steady growth in prices until 2014 but then I see a significant jump between 2014 and 2016. Then probably in 2017 and 2018, when suppliers are against us to come back, hopefully we will have some stabilization.

Once pending infrastructure projects are near completion, more investors are likely to look into investing in the property market which is certainly taking an upturn.

According to a recent survey of the industry by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and INSEAD Abu Dhabi, the private equity industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has emerged stronger from the global financial crisis and the recent political turmoil in the region. In addition, the survey showed the small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector has emerged as new investment target for the regional private equity players.

All in all, there seem to be enough good reasons to invest in the UAE in the long-term. The rest, time will tell!

Kabir Mulchandani
Skai Holdings
Dubai, UAE

Entering the Blogosphere by Kabir Mulchandani

The power of online communication, including social media, is truly astonishing. New technology has connected us in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago, bringing us closer, empowering all of us to share our opinions – giving a voice to the previously voiceless, as we have seen so powerfully illustrated in recent months here in the Arab world.


This blog is my own small contribution to that dialogue. I would like to use this space to share my thoughts and opinions, and to engage in a conversation about the property market, entrepreneurship, new books and new ideas about how to change things for the better.


I think I can say with confidence that I’m an expert when it comes to the property sector here in Dubai. But I don’t claim to know any more than anyone else about some of the other issues I plan to discuss in the weeks and months to come.


That’s why I would really like to use this space as a forum for discussion and debate – about real estate, business and life here in Dubai, the city I am so proud to call home.


Blogging is new to me, so I don’t know with any certainty where this will lead, and what direction these entries will take moving ahead. I do plan to write here about once a week, though, so please stay connected.


Thanks for reading!
Kabir Mulchandani
Dubai, UAE

Kabir Mulchandani - My Story In My Words

This is my blog and I would like it to have my story in my words. Some of you may have heard of me, and some of what you may have heard may not be very positive. Beginning in early 2009, I was accused of a range of professional failings. But none of those accusations are true. 

Nevertheless, as a consequence of those accusations, I spent 140 days in custody here in Dubai. With the support of my legal counsel, I have since completely cleared my name. I have been found innocent by every court. I first settled in Dubai with my family in 2004. Business was booming here and across the globe. It was then that I started a property investment company called Dynasty Enterprises. We were very successful.

A few years later, we merged our business with the business interests of Hilal Al Zarooni, to become Dynasty Zarooni. Between 2004 and late 2008, Dynasty Zarooni invested in, marketed and sold residential and commercial property, primarily in high-growth areas of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The company carried out transactions during that period worth in excess of 6 billion dollars. Then Lehman Brothers went bust and, like the rest of the world, Dubai was impacted by the global financial downturn.

Not long after the start of the global financial crisis, a legal complaint was filed against me by a small group of investors whose cheques to the company had bounced. These large-scale investors, who had invested in multiple units, accused me of a range of made-up acts of wrongdoing, including that some of the projects we had sold were non-existent and that we did not have legal title to sell others that did exist.

Although the courts have since affirmed that all these claims were bogus, I understand why these investors did what they did. These investors had placed very large amounts of leveraged capital in a wide range of projects, including in some projects that we had sold them. After the sudden downturn in the Dubai property sector, these investors were left in an extremely precarious position.

They were highly leveraged, highly exposed and probably frightened. They had written very large cheques – to Dynasty Zarooni and other companies – that they knew were not going to clear. They understood that the consequences of that could be severe.

What they did next was understandable but still wrong: they tried to make me the fall guy. Over the past few years, I have spent a lot of time with my lawyers and in the courts.

Even though I have been completely exonerated – and found innocent of every single charge made against me – there are still times I look back and shake my head in wonder.

I’ve concluded that life is a lot like the property market: it’s cyclical, and full of ups and downs. Reaching the peak of the cycle can be exhilarating. Hitting bottom can be devastating.

If we believe in ourselves and what we are doing, though, we just have to accept that life is cyclical. Despite the challenges I have faced, I continue to invest in Dubai’s real estate sector because I believe there are clear opportunities for success.

Kabir Mulchandani

CEO Skai Holdings Dubai 

webmaster@skaiholdings.com