Leading Dubai Developer Calls 2009 a 'Horrible Year' and Looks ahead to 2010

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(DUBAI, U.A.E.) -- Now that 2009 is close to becoming history, leading business people are looking back at what happened. That's what Mohammed Nimer, CEO of MAG Group Property Development in Dubai, has been doing using the Latin term Annus Horribilis or horrible year to describe what his company and the real estate industry have gone through this year.

"With the onset of the financial crisis at the close of 2008, many of us in the property and real estate world expected 2009 to be one of the most challenging of modern times. It was certainly that - and then some!" Nimer explained.

In the UAE MAG Group Property Development is involved in projects worth close to a billion dollars. It owns 12 properties at various stages of development in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. The company was one of the first to create escrow accounts for projects even before government regulations were introduced and is one of the few developers in the region with ISO 9001 certification.

Despite the recent past, Nimer is carefully bullish on the future of real estate development in the UAE, the Gulf, and the world. He says he expects  2010 to be "a year of further consolidations before buyers in significant numbers" come back and points out, "we are currently still living with an oversupply in the market and that will have to work its way through."

While 2010 will not see dramatic growth, Nimer believes the future from 2011 is bright. He says he is pleased to see the "return of the traditional business model of marketing completed or near completed new properties which now generate more sales than the speculative off-plan project model."

MAG Group Property Development is part of the Dubai-based Moafaq Al Gaddah Group of Companies which was established in 1978 and is now a multinational organization with 18 offices in eight countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

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