Towering ambition

Adel Al Zarouni has a lot on his mind. In between planning the company's billions worth of investments for the next three years, anticipating Cityscape, and looking at new markets to tap into, he manages to squeeze in a quick interview. The managing director of Burooj Properties, a solely owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), aims to hit US$13.5bn, by 2010 in UAE investments alone. While the company's main focus within the UAE is Abu Dhabi, at the moment, Al Zarouni says there are broader plans on the horizon.

"We have investments in Jordan and Syria. We are going to expand those investments and are looking into Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and other countries in the region," he says.

Jordan is one market where the company sees a lot of potential and has already started pouring money into.

"It is one of the markets that we feel offers an opportunity for us and where we can meet our criteria of investment," says Ahmed Al Sakban, head of sales and marketing at Burooj.

Previously this year at Cityscape Abu Dhabi, the company launched its property investment products within its property development project ‘Burooj Jordan' located in Al Jeezah area of south Amman. The project, which was established in partnership with Jordan-based Al Bustan Real Estate, consists of more than 130 pieces of land allocated for residential units, handicraft and light industrial use.

The Burooj Jordan project also includes developing main roads and other branch roads to link the different parts of the project, therefore connecting it through a direct main road to the airport road. It will also look into the entire basic infrastructure such as water and wastewater facilities, telecommunications, electricity, as well as nearby service facilities such as schools, hospitals, mosques, and banks.

With projects on such a scale, the company is also unveiling one of its master developments in the UAE directly after Cityscape Dubai 2007.

"We are participating in Cityscape to present Burooj as a developer. We are presenting our concept for our new mega project that we will be unveiling towards the end of November in the UAE, which will be worth US$2.45bn," says Al Sakban, adding: "We are also presenting some of our other services such as project management, property valuation, and real estate investments."

Al Sakban also stresses that traditional markets such as the US, Australia and Europe are no longer attractive to international investors who are shifting their sights into emerging markets like the Gulf. Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2008, another master project will be announced. Also in the pipeline are major projects across the region for the coming three years.

To Al Zarouni, due the continuous poor equity market returns of the different stock markets in the region, the real estate industry has the gleam of a safe investment, excluding the tarnish that other asset classes may bring.