Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi

'With a banking license we can take deposits and gain access to cheaper funds,' explains dynamic young UAE national managing director and chief executive officer Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi.

'It will also enable us to serve our customers better with all their banking requirements in one place. It makes sense for us to convert to a bank at this stage just like the Halifax or Nationwide in the UK as our balance sheet has grown so big.'

Progress at Amlak Finance has been fast. Amlak started life as a division of Emaar Properties and when Mr. Hashimi joined in 2001 had 15 employees and a capitalization of $8.5 million. Today Amlak is the 61st largest quoted company in the GCC with 150 staff and a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.

But the business is set for even stronger growth in the next five years. To start with there are all the properties about to be delivered in Dubai in 2007 and 2008 which will need finance.

'For the developer the handover is the end of the story, but for Amlak this is just the beginning of a long-term relationship with finance extended over 10, 15 or even 25 years. It is our challenge to make sure that our service standards keep these premium customers happy for that period.

'We also have to gear up the scale of our own business to be able to cope with the flow of new clients,' he adds, noting that Abu Dhabi will be the next place to boom for property finance.

'I am very bullish indeed about what is happening in Abu Dhabi which reminds me of Dubai in 2002. But it is going to be at least two years before homes are delivered that need finance. All the same we opened our office in Abu Dhabi in May to show our commitment.'

The other new geographical expansion for Amlak Finance is going to be into Saudi Arabia and Egypt where Emaar Properties has several mega projects.

'We are not going to reinvent the wheel,' says Mr. Hashimi. 'We are going to export what we have done here to those markets. It will have its own challenges, however, as nobody has much idea what a mortgage is in Egypt for example.'

Amlak Finance was the first company to offer home finance in Dubai, and clearly has not lost its pioneering spirit. And for the local market Mr. Hashimi promises continued innovation in the mortgage product arena.

This week saw the first-ever 100 per cent mortgage for Dubai Properties in the Business Bay. Refinancing of existing properties was introduced earlier this year and has proven very popular. But Mr. Hashimi is a more cautious man than he might appear.

'On the Business Bay project we are lending on commercial property that we are very confident will appreciate in value with a first tier developer, and only to clients with a suitable credit rating. And for refinancing of existing property we take an independent valuation and everybody knows how strong the demand for completed properties is in Dubai.'

Not surprisingly, Mr Hashimi remains very confident that the Dubai property market will continue to boom. His only word of warning is that if you see a developer without finance available from reputed sources this is not a good sign as it might signal that they have not met the due diligence standards of the sector.