The webinar explores the ongoing transformation of the office sector and highlights how the Arabian Gulf’s two most populous nations are getting back to growth through this evolution. During the online seminar, industry experts, Dr. Chris Payne, Chief Economist at Peninsula Research, and Simon Townsend, Head of Valuations and Consultancy at CBRE, debate and discuss trickle-down topics such as economic impact ripples caused by the office of the future, the importance of technology in future workplaces, and work-life integration.
"We intend to highlight how macroeconomic conditions in the Arabian Gulf over the past few years have been the chief determinant of challenging real estate prices. Rather than follow the usual argument that there has been an over-building problem, we will stress that the real issue has been weaker demand as an outcome of fiscal constraints placed on governments by lower oil prices,” said Dr. Payne, a former chief economist at Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
“Given this scenario, it becomes possible to model the economic impact of COVID-19 on the real estate market in the UAE and KSA. Subsequently, and considering our conservative economic and fiscal estimates for 2020, we can extrapolate how the real estate cycle will turn.”
These models will be key to helping the region get back to business, exploring new and existing challenges, and helping to identify the route to recovery for the real estate sectors.