{"id":22153,"date":"2016-08-06T23:54:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=22153"},"modified":"2016-08-06T22:10:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T15:10:10","slug":"affordable-housing-squeezes-uae-developers-says-former-arabtec-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/affordable-housing-squeezes-uae-developers-says-former-arabtec-executive\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable housing squeezes UAE developers, says former Arabtec executive"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nFormer Arabtec CFO says control of costs the priorityThe former group chief financial officer of Arabtec has said contractors in the region are finding their already tight margins squeezed even further by developers driving the growth of the UAE’s afford\u00adable housing sector. Iyad Abdulrahim, who left the firm in May 2015 and previously held senior posts at Depa and at Dubai Properties Group, said both public and private sector organisations in the region are facing liquidity challenges.Mr Abdulrahim, who now provides restructuring and advi\u00adsory services to companies, said while post-financial crisis rules introduced by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority mean fewer projects grind to a halt because proper funding mechanisms are in place, a lack of cash in the market means developers are having to tailor schemes to provide more affordable homes, as that is where demand lies. This has led to a change in developers’ own priorities, he argued, so that cost control becomes the primary target, rather than ensuring projects are completed on time. “In the past, it was the completion date that was the top priority because there was demand available and they wanted to catch it as quickly as possible,” said Mr Abdulrahim.The drive for more afford\u00adable homes means a potentially more adversarial relationship between developers and contractors, he said.”Developers are now moving towards applying all possible cost control measures, including delay penalties and very precise management of valu\u00adations and claims from the contractor,” he said. “In one way or another, there is not much room for construction com\u00adpanies where they can compensate [for] a delay in works, or any glitches.”David Clifton, the regional business development director with the cost consultancy Faithful + Gould, said contractors would prefer to work on high-end property schemes where margins are typically higher, but the lack of other work in the current market means that they are not in a position to be choosy.”You will focus on where you think you can make margin. However, the downturn in work means that you will look at work that you would not have done previously,” Mr Clifton said.He cited as one example the UK-based contractor Kier, which recently announced that it had secured \u00c2\u00a360 million (Dh288.2m) worth of contracts for the affordable housing developer Nshama. It is delivering an \u00c2\u00a311m infrastructure contract at the Dubai developer Nshama’s Town Square development in the city and has been named the preferred bidder for another \u00c2\u00a349m accommodation project for the developer, which will be delivered under the UK Export Finance initiative.”I wouldn’t historically have said that Kier would be interested in working with Nshama because their premiums are too high,” said Mr Clifton.Mr Abdulrahim said contractors were cutting their own costs to service projects, but were often doing so in the wrong manner simply by reducing headcount rather than taking process-driven decisions.mfahy@thenational.ae
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Affordable housing squeezes UAE developers, says former Arabtec executive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Arabtec CFO says control of costs the priorityThe former group chief financial officer of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-5Lj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22199,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/affordable-housing-rinsing-contractors-margins-says-ex-arabtec-exec\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":0},"title":"Affordable housing 'rinsing contractors margins', says ex-Arabtec exec","date":"August 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Rising demand for affordable housing prompts increased focus on cost control\r \r Source : arabianbusiness.com\r Read more...Affordable housing 'rinsing contractors margins', says ex-Arabtec exec","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8632,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-lands-dh1-7bn-housing-contract-in-fujairah\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":1},"title":"Arabtec lands Dh1.7bn housing contract in Fujairah","date":"March 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec has won a Dh1.7 billion contract to build 1,100 houses for Emiratis in Fujairah.The UAE government's Ministry of Presidential Affairs awarded the contract for the homes that will be built on a 2.15 square kilometre plot at Mohammed bin Zayed City.Work is due to start immi\u00adnently and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6372,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-shares-soar-after-former-chief-hasan-ismaik-raises-stake-in-dubai-builder\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":2},"title":"Arabtec shares soar after former chief Hasan Ismaik raises stake in Dubai builder","date":"February 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec Holding's former chief executive Hasan Ismaik has increased his shareholding in the builder, sending its shares soaring to their highest level since November.Mr Ismaik's shareholding in the company increased to 11.91 per cent from 11.81 per cent, according to the Dubai Financial Market website. The stock rose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22849,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-still-in-the-red-but-losses-reduced-by-74-per-cent\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":3},"title":"Arabtec still in the red but losses reduced by 74 per cent","date":"August 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The Dubai contractor Arabtec posted its seventh successive quarterly loss for the three months to June 30, although an increase in revenue has meant the scale of its losses narrowed.The company posted a net loss attributable to its parent company of Dh186.4 million \u2014 a 74 per cent reduction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6704,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-shares-record-best-week-in-more-than-seven-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":4},"title":"Arabtec shares record best week in more than seven years","date":"March 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec shares rebounded on Thursday, capping the stock's best week in more than seven years.The construction firm's shares, which plummeted 20 per cent on Wednesday afternoon following a \"sell\" note from EFG Hermes, rose by as much as 11 per cent, before settling 8 per cent higher at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51544,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/capital-restructuring-will-allow-arabtec-to-focus-on-long-term-prospects-says-chief-executive\/","url_meta":{"origin":22153,"position":5},"title":"Capital restructuring will allow Arabtec to focus on long-term prospects, says chief executive","date":"April 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Arabtec Holdings's chief executive, Hamish Tyrwhitt, has said that he is confident the capital restructuring programme, for which the company will seek approval from shareholders next week, will allow the group \"to capitalise on the positive long-term outlook for the construction and engineering sector in our key geographic market\".\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}