London favourite destination for Qatari investors

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

By Mohammad Shoeb

DOHA: London’s property market is increasingly consolidating its position as one of the favourite destinations for Qatari investors. Qatari investors accounted for 10 percent of the total London property deals closed through a leading international property agency ‘Chestertons’. Chestertons inked deals worth about $166m (AED610m) for property sales to investors from the Middle East region in 2015.

Middle East investors account for over 70 percent of total London property sales through Chestertons. Investors from Kuwait topped the GCC list accounting for 21 percent of total London sales through Chestertons followed by Saudi Arabia (17 percent) UAE (10 percent) and Bahrain (7 percent). The balance of other buyers was made up of nationals from UK Switzerland and Iran.

London was the most attractive market for Chestertons’ Mena investors with more than AED265m invested into the UK capital’s real estate market. This represented over 70 percent of their total sales of nearly AED379m.

“London has long been a favoured destination for investors from the Middle East region it is a mature well regulated market with a solid track record for capital appreciation and many Middle East investors are familiar with London visiting on a regular basis” said Declan McNaughton Managing Director UAE Chestertons Mena.

Based in its Dubai office Chestertons has a dedicated team of London property experts who provide prospective investors with up-to-date market insight and a comprehensive database of investment opportunities.

However it was not all capital outflow from the region Chestertons’ Dubai office sold properties worth almost AED232m in the UAE with almost 40 percent of the total sales value coming from Middle Eastern investors.

Emirati investors topped the nationality breakdown accounting for around 25 percent of investment with single digit percentage contributions from investors in Saudi Arabia Jordan and Lebanon.

Indian and UK nationals were also prominent nationalities contributing approximately 15 percent and 10 percent respectively.

“Our nationality breakdown for UAE sales is more or less in line with the Dubai Land Department’s (DLD) nationality breakdown” added McNaughton.

In the Middle East Chestertons has grown from a single Abu Dhabi office in 2008 to a network of locations that includes the existing Dubai headquarters Qatar and presence in three key Saudi Arabian hubs Riyadh Jeddah and Al Khobar.

“Due to increased investor appetite our focus moving forward is to enlarge our regional footprint in key locations across the Gulf starting with the addition of a third Dubai office located in the Al Barsha area and one in Ajman” added McNaughton.

The company’s new Al Barsha office will be staffed by a 50-strong team of RERA-approved property and valuations experts swelling Chestertons’ in-house expertise to a total of 130 seasoned real estate professionals to manage a property portfolio of up to AED185m.

The Peninsula