The future of real estate sector in Qatar looks extremely promising despite a slowdown due to the global crisis in 2008, said Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Bin Thani Al-Thani, the chairman of the board of Al Khalij Commercial Bank (al khaliji).

He was delivering the keynote address on behalf of al Khaliji, a key sponsor at Qatar’s first Cityscape conference held in Doha recently.

'The resilience shown by Qatari real estate industry as well as by the financial institutions, was primarily due to wise and sound decisions taken by the government and the Qatar Central Bank,' stated Sheikh Hamad, while addressing a packed audience.

The country, he said, had emerged relatively unscathed as compared to many economies despite the crisis.

In contrast to the experience globally, and regionally, financing by Qatari banks to local real estate sector grew more than two fold from October 2008 to April 2012. And the future of real estate looks extremely promising… [with the advent of the FIFA World Cup in 2022, and the country being guided by Qatar’s National Development Strategy],” he added.

Cityscape Qatar is the latest franchise of the event, originally founded in the UAE in 2002. The event attracted over 1500 global participants, with over 200 multi-national firms exhibiting their wares and services at the Doha Exhibition Center.

With the expected growth in the real estate sector, al khaliji is viewed as a bank of choice for developers seeking financing of their projects, said Sheikh Hamad.
 
He indicated some reasons that strengthen al khaliji’s position in the financing sector:  healthy capital, an untarnished record of growth, the recently-awarded Fitch rating and most important of all its unique “preferred customer” approach to banking.

“In 2008, al khaliji launched its activities with a capital base just short of QR4 billion. Four years later, and with a succession of double-digit year-on-year growth numbers, we now have almost seven times the capital base – close to QR27 billion in assets. And we have accomplished this without recording a single loss in any quarter over the past 48 months,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service