Sharjah is thriving despite slowdown

Sharjah market is thriving despite a slowdown in market due to low property prices and stable demand-supply ratio, a senior executive says. 
Real estate developer Arada's vice-chairman Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal, who has tested the UAE market for 10 years now, said Sharjah realty market hasn't been affected like other emirates.
"Prices in Sharjah didn't increase as fast and dramatically as Dubai did. So there is a bigger slowdown and curve heading down for Dubai. Percentage wise it is not high but still it's going down. And this positions us perfectly for Arada," Khaled said on the sidelines of Cityscape Abu Dhabi where Arada is promoting projects Nasma Residences and Aljada mixed-use development.
Elaborating, Khaled said Arada kept prices low and made competitors slash prices. "We are offering very lower price compared to the competitors. I think we had a positive effect on slowdown of the real estate. The prices were little too high for the customers," he said.
Khaled is very optimistic about positive demand for Arada projects. "We are very bullish on continuing our efforts to push our residential project Nasma. It is a 900-unit project and we have sold 700 units so far. We are also looking at pushing mixed-use Aljada. We are receiving good feedback from phase 1, 2 and especially 3 which is student accommodation."
He noted there is room for further growth in Sharjah market as appetite from locals and those in the region is on the rise. 
"We are seeing lot of families from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and international clientele who would love to commute to Dubai but live in Sharjah," he said and noted that Emiratis were 'surprisingly? the biggest number of buyers for Nasma and Aljada. "We are happy with positioning of our apartments, villas and mixed-use buildings."
He said Arada was interested in investing into Saudi Arabia ideally through a joint venture. "We want to export our ideas and philosophy into Saudi Arabia. Our next expansion will definitely be in Saudi Arabia. We are studying it very seriously."
Khaled hoped for ease of Saudi regulations to attract more investors. "There is lot of requests from private sector to ease visa issues, employment issues and Saudisation. We would love to see some ease in that regard. We are seeing lot of efforts from Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid Al Qasabi, who is forward thinker. He is optimistic about opening up Saudi market for the locals and international investors," Khaled added. - ashwani@khaleejtimes.com