Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

In an effort to solve housing shortages, the Abu Dhabi government is ramped up their building construction. They now expect to have 200 buildings constructed by 2009. The buildings will be under the purview of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

Like most Middle Eastern countries, Abu Dhabi is facing a bit of a housing shortage. Rapid growth and development in the real estate sector has made the cost of residential housing sky rocket. Even for those that can afford it, it became nearly impossible to find suitable housing. To resolve this problem, the Abu Dhabi government chose to implement a lottery system. Still suffering from housing shortages, Abu Dhabi has authorized control over the Shaikh Khalifa committee to be transferred to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. With this takeover, the region expects 200 new buildings to show up on the market between 2008 and 2009. These commercial buildings will be managed in the same manner as before. Currently the Khalifa committee comprises of 3500 buildings which equates to over 55,000 residential units.

The goal was to move management over the programme from the government to the private sector. During the process of the takeover, Abu Dhabi is still funding additional projects which includes the 200 additional buildings. Property investors in the area concerned that the takeover could cost them should not be worried. The bank's goals are to improve over all management of these developments and in many cases to reduce costs. Infrastructure is often of primary concern to property investors. With the Abu Dhabi government looking to improve that structure, the region's property market should be able to avoid the sudden downturn that other emerging markets have suffered. The government is not turning financing over to ADCB, but will continue funding and setting terms and conditions for loans. Private sector management will also speed up the development and addition of units to the market.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was awarded the contract in 2006 and so far the takeover process is on schedule. The expected cut off date is July 1, 2008.

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