A new report by the Oxford Business Group released at Cityscape has ranked India as the number one emerging market in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The report, titled ‘The Market: Real Estate 2007,’ ranked 23 emerging markets based on investment opportunities in residential, commercial, hospitality and retail development.

Surprisingly, the study noted, the Philippines was ranked number two, followed by Turkey, Morocco, and Egypt.

The report also identified Saudi Arabia as the strongest investment prospect in the Arabian Gulf, while Syria presents a ‘notable opportunity’ for hotel and tourism development.

According to the report, the success of several North African countries in the rankings is due to the liberalisation of investment laws across the region which have eroded barriers to entry. It also noted that while the prominence of India in the rankings is no surprise, the results show that there are other sizeable and investment-friendly markets which have attracted less global attention.

‘It is not necessary that countries be wealthy to perform strongly,’ said the authors of the report.

In a departure from the glitter and luxury on display at Cityscape, Dubai-based MAG Group Property Development today unveiled new projects that are specifically aimed at the ‘mid-range’ market. The four new residential and office buildings, which are worth a combined Dhs500 million, include a 27-floor office building in Business Bay, a 23-floor residential building in Jumeirah Village, and two low-rise buildings in International City.

Moreover, Mohammed Nimer, the firm’s CEO, said ethics and stakeholder transparency have been critical to the firm’s success in acquiring a Dhs3 billion portfolio. ‘We have always operated in an environment of absolute transparency. We were operating Escrow accounts long before the Dubai Government introduced Law number 8 and we hold ownership certificates for any land that we are developing,’ he said.

Nimer says this ‘open’ policy has helped the firm reassure investors and purchasers and enabled it to grow its property development portfolio in the UAE.
 
‘We are not going to make any outlanding claims, like the highest ceilings, the biggest bathrooms, or the most expensive fountains. We excel in design, finishing, and customer satisfaction. We focus on the delivery of our promise,’ he said.

The Gamsha Bay project being developed in Egypt by Damac Properties is truly a mammoth sight to behold (the photo captures only about half of the development). The 320-million square foot project, which is located on the red sea 60 km north of Hurghada, is billed as the largest development in the region, and upon viewing it first-hand it certainly lives up to its claim.

Residents of the $16bn project will be able to enjoy 39kms of coastline and 25kms of beaches near their apartments and villas. The sprawling community will also include golf courses, spas, marinas, shopping, and cinemas, but what really caught our eye was the development’s x-treme sports adventure theme park. Designed - presumably - for ‘kids’ of all ages, the park will offer activities such as skateboarding, paint ball, wall climbing, shooting, and flying.

Damac says that the park will be the first of its kind in the Middle East. Unfortunately, no date was given on when the park will be ready.

One of the more fascinating projects on display at Cityscape is the rotating tower, the first in the Middle East, being developed by High Rise Properties for the Jumeirah Village South project in Dubai.

Hussam Al-Emami, an engineer on the development, said the project is much more complicated than a single-story rotating restaurant because each of the top five floors of the 16-storey residential building will rotate independently.

Residents will be able to control whether they want their floor to rotate clockwise, counterclockwise, or stop altogether. The speed can also be set independently, which will allow residents to rotate their floor 360 degrees once every hour if they want an amusement park-like ride, or just once a day if they are in a more serene mood.

Al-Emami pointed out that not all of the floor will rotate. He said the best way to explain it is to picture the floor of the apartment like a running track, and only the outer lane (about 15 feet wide) nearest the window will rotate. He said the reason for this is that the rotation would disturb residents as they are eating or sleeping, so these areas remain stationary.

Interestingly, the outdoor elevator, which serves only the duplex on the building’s top floor, was initially conceived as a car port that would take the owner’s vehicle to the top floor. But the developer scrapped the idea after it determined that there would be little use for the vehicle on the top of the building.

Prices for the five rotating floors are not cheap. The four penthouse suites will cost between Dhs14-22 million. The duplex at the very top of the building is priced at about Dhs35 million. The building is expected to be complete at the end of 2009.

Patrick Swayze has just been spotted walking the floors of Cityscape, closely followed by a camera crew.

While we won’t claim to know for sure his reason for pounding the exhibition’s floor, it’s a pretty good bet that he’s here for an investment opportunity, looking for a place in Dubai or the surrounding regions.

Let us know if you spot any other celebs at Cityscape….

Land prices in Dubai, as we reported earlier this week, have risen some 64 per cent this past year, pushing property prices even higher.

This make living in the emirate tougher for people on a low income, something that several developers have said they believe fits the long-term aim for Dubai – that those earning less live in surrounding areas such as Sharjah and Ajman (which is of course good for those emirates as it will help push up property values).

With land prices becoming so high, sub-developers argue that they can’t afford to building more affordable homes, because the economics don’t add up. Hence the proliferation of luxury homes.

Shaikh Holdings, which is developing Sanctuary Falls in the Jumeriah Golf Estates, said that for it to make money on its investment, it needs to price villas accordingly. This is an issue for other smaller developers that are trying to carve a niche in the luxury segment.

It is building 96 resort style villas, ranging in price from Dhs8.5m to Dhs21m, and because there are so few buildings it needs to price them high. ‘This is 96 units, not a community of 500 units,’ said CEO Imran Shaikh. ‘We are trying to put a value proposition forward saying yes we are expensive, but look at the attention to detail.’

The company claims to have sold just over 60 of the 96 homes – none of which have been built yet – already. Golf resorts are a popular luxury market, and Shaikh’s buildings will be next to the Greg Norman designed Earth course.

Dubai has built itself a reputation of missing delivery dates for properties. Shaikh Holdings says it has built in financial penalties if dates slip. Like other developers, we shall keep an eye on whether or not it delivers on time.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, gave attendees at Cityscape a stern warning about the sustainability of real estate projects in the region in an address at the conference. He believes the region’s infrastructure will not be able to match growth projections unless steps are taken to address the real estate sector’s energy, water, and waste consumption rates.

The real estate sector plan to deliver $500bn worth of developments in the region over the next seven years, he said, but to do so will require an additional two million cubic metres of water per day, 75 million additional megawatt hours of energy per year, all while producing an additional 3.5 million tons of solid waste and 300 million tons of carbon emissions per year. ‘This level of growth is not sustainable,’ he warned.

The figures represent about a 100 per cent increase from current levels. ‘Unless we change the current energy, water and waste consumption rates of developments, we will undoubtedly bottleneck the existing infrastructure, choke the planned capacities of utilities and create damage to the environment,’ he said.

He urged developers to reduce power and water demand by adopting energy efficiency in buildings. He is also a proponent of integrated design planning and carbon credits as a means to partially finance technological enhancements.

His firm is taking the lead in this area by developing the world’s first zero-carbon and zero-waste city, a 6-square km integrated green zone in Abu Dhabi that will implement cutting-edge technologies and design to ensure its sustainability.