Rents for factories and warehouses in Abu Dhabi’s main industrial areas have risen by up to 10 per cent from a year ago.
That marks a rebound from the financial crisis during which industrial rents, viewed as an indicator of a city’s economic health, plunged by as much as a third in some areas.
With the uptick in the emirate’s non-oil related economy, annual rents in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi 1 (Icad 1) and in the Almarkaz area (south of Abu Dhabi) rose 10 per cent year on year respectively to Dh550 per square metre and Dh400 per square foot, a report by the property broker Knight Frank shows.
Rents in the older Mussafah area also increased about 5 per cent to between Dh350 per square metre and Dh500 per square metre, depending on the building’s age and quality.
However, rents have not increased in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), which opened in September last year. The developer Abu Dhabi Ports Company froze annual rents at about Dh380 per square metre to attract more tenants. Presently, there are 44 firms located in Kizad.
In the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) Free Zone, annual rents for warehouses stayed the most costly in the capital with a slight increase to Dh750 per square metre.
Industrial rents in Almarkaz are 40 per cent higher than they were at the bottom of the market, while those in Icad 1 are 22 per cent higher.
However, average industrial rents in the Adac Free Zone, Icad 1 and Mussafah remain 15 to 20 per cent below their peaks, according to Knight Frank.
The broker forecasts a further 10 per cent rise in industrial rents in Abu Dhabi over the coming year before taking into account the price increases likely to arise should Dubai win the bid to host Expo 2020.
Edward Batten, Knight Frank’s commercial leasing manager at its Dubai office, said the capital appeared to be following Dubai’s lead.
“We are seeing an increase in demand for industrial space really coming through now,” Mr Batten said. “Especially from companies which use a lot of power, such as food and beverage or pharmaceuticals manufacturers because the price of electricity is lower in Abu Dhabi than in Dubai.”
In the first nine months of the year, food-and-beverage as well as engineering-and-construction firms accounted for the highest number of new inquiries for logistics space in the capital, Knight Frank said.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
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Abu Dhabi World Pro 2019 remaining schedule:
Wednesday April 24: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-6pm
Thursday April 25: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-5pm
Friday April 26: Finals, 3-6pm
Saturday April 27: Awards ceremony, 4pm and 8pm
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
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Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Cabriolet
Price, base: Dh429,090
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Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Wicked
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Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
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Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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Director: Alfonso Cuaron
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Electoral College Victory
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