Al Mazaya Property Index to be published on CMIS

The agreement provides for exchange of information, reports, various real estate data and expertise between the two parties, who share the mutual aim of optimizing the services rendered by both parties. The region's first and largest alliance of this kind is joining forces between leading providers of various real estate services and products.

The real estate sector in the GCC is still growing in terms of average price rate, volume of transactions and the liquidity invested in the sector, proving its buoyancy and outstanding ability to attract massive investments over the next several years, driven by the existing economic boom and a rising influx of direct foreign investment into diverse economic and investment sectors across the region, according to the Al Mazaya Property Index, the first index of its kind in the region.

In line with the current, unprecedented growth rate, the Kuwait-based company is attempting to expand its services further into the region, and to provide broader access to the Index, successfully operated and managed by Sahara Group, the world's largest provider of information on the property sector.

The agreement was signed by Eng. Salwa Malhas, Senior Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Al Mazaya Holding, Mr. Fahad Al Deeb, Vice-President of Sahara Group, the index operator, and Mr. Rohan Marwaha, Managing Director of Cityscape Group.

The agreement aims to provide CMIS with the data issued by Al Mazaya Property Index, which is conceptualized by Al Mazaya and developed by Sahara on the basis of a particular vision to provide real figures about the GCC property market. The index monitors property movement in the GCC and tracks the progress of the real estate sector throughout the GCC in terms of price and the volume of transactions, including for commercial, residential and rental property. This information and analysis encompasses all sectors, including the residential land sector, the villas and apartments sector, the commercial and investment land sector and the prefabricated offices sector.

CMIS will provide its subscribers with all Al Mazaya index reports and information, adding greater value to its industry related news, articles and research, which help real estate professionals with the intelligence they need to help them make key strategic decisions. The Website covers the Middle East Region, China, India and South East Asia.

Commenting on this agreement, Eng. Salwa Malhas, Senior Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Al Mazaya Holding, said: 'Apart from it being the region's maiden initiative in this regard and the ultimate source for accurate reports and analysis, what distinguishes the Al Mazaya Property Index is the business-to business approach in providing detailed information on property markets in the GCC, and the fact that it offers credible, comprehensive and transparent figures, data and research, which reflect the true state of the GCC property market and help investors go in the right direction at the right time'.

'Since its launch in June of 2007, the Index has been an incredibly successful venture, and in light of the precise figures and accurate predictions issued by the index, we have proven once again that the Index is one of the most important projects launched in Arab countries, and the GCC countries, particularly in 2007. The index has excelled at providing the market with invaluable, comprehensive reports, analyses, figures and data on the GCC countries in an objective manner,' Malhas added.

Malhas pointed out that the concept of Al Mazaya stems from the need to focus on movement in the property sectors throughout each country of the GCC, but it was later noted that the existing real estate boom in the region requires a similar initiative in each city. Therefore, the Al Mazaya Index now targets property movements in each of the GCC cities in each country, and this expansion will be officially announced soon.

Malhas revealed that the Al Mazaya Property Index has received a series of offers for strategic alliance from international indices with the aim of exchanging information, and the company is studying some of these offers, provided that the company will not adopt any partnership before building a sustainable basis for the index that preserves its identity and protects it from merging into large international indices.

Mr. Fahad Al Deeb, Vice-President of Sahara Group, said, 'Developing Al Mazaya's revolutionary idea by establishing this index was a challenge for Sahara, as it is a milestone in the world of information in the property markets across the GCC. Sahara has joined hands with Al Mazaya to gather the relevant information from credible sources, and to establish strategic partnerships with government departments in order to gain access to updated information. Today marks the beginning of a new era in our endeavors to develop this index, which has managed, within a short span of time, to attract attention from the leading newspapers, radio and TV channels and other media resources, showing increased interest in the index's data, reports and analyses.'

Mr. Rohan Marwaha, Cityscape Managing Director, said, 'Since the inception of our online portal, we have been committed to providing subscribers with the very latest Real Estate information. We have faced some difficulties in finding the facts to support some of our predictions or research, due to a lack of a credible resources for information. We are thrilled to be signing this agreement with the Al Mazaya Property Index, the only GCC index that monitors the movements in property sectors in a precise and transparent manner, by analyzing the prices of deals and transactions in each GCC country as a price index, in addition to the number of deals in each sector as a quantity index.'

The index provides opportunities to identify the rise in each property sector and the gains achieved for all transactions concluded. It gives additional information based on a huge and regularly updated database, in order to help investors choose the most lucrative direction for their investment in a simple and credible way, in addition to identifying the dominant property sector, and the most attractive one for surplus liquidity.