ABU DHABI: Aldar Properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi’s largest property developer, is seeing a surge in demand for homes that’s being driven in large part by foreign buyers.

The company has boosted the number of new developments from around two or three annually in 2008 to 14 new developments this year, Mohamed Al Mubarak, chairman of Aldar and a member of Abu Dhabi’s Executive Council said in an interview with David Rubenstein for an upcoming episode of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations.

“Our development pipeline has grown eight-fold,” Al Mubarak said.

That’s helped by the increase in the number of overseas buyers from Asia and Europe. The firm’s share of international buyers has grown to 30% this year from 11% in 2021, he said.

Abu Dhabi has been on a US$10bil drive to draw expats to live in the city and boost tourism.

It’s building a Guggenheim museum and already has a Louvre. The capital of the United Arab Emirates is also pouring billions into sprawling theme parks, five-star hotels, luxury homes, sports complexes and high-end office towers as the city’s rulers look to diversify the economy and cater to global financial giants like Brevan Howard Asset Management and Greg Coffey’s Kirkoswald Asset Management, who’ve set up in the emirate.

Al Mubarak, who is also the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, said the emirate will need to boost its hotel rooms by 60% to accommodate the rising demand of tourists flocking into the Gulf city even during the hot summer months.

Abu Dhabi will need to build 20,000 hotel rooms within the next five years to expand its hospitality supply of around 33,000 rooms, he estimated.

The emirate has seen a surge in the number of tourists, even during the traditionally quiet summer months when temperatures soar above 45°C. That’s because most of the attractions are indoors.

Last year, the city saw around 5.3 million tourists, Al Mubarak said.

This year, over six million tourists are expected to visit the emirate.

“The perception was always like when the summer hits here, it’s too hot, then everybody leaves,” Al Mubarak said. “On the contrary, this summer was the busiest summer we’ve had in terms of tourism numbers in the history of our development pipeline.”

Abu Dhabi plans to build a Sphere arena, a round LED clad structure that provides fans of musical concerts and other performances a highly immersive experience.

The Las Vegas Sphere, which opened last year, cost an estimated US$2.3bil to build. 

 - Bloomberg