New deluxe hotel opens

Senior executives from Hospitality Management Holdings (HMH) recently congregated at Corp Executive Hotel Doha Suites to celebrate the soft opening of the hotel.
Ahmad Ali al-Kuwari, Chairman, Al Kuwari International Group and owner of Corp Executive Hotel Doha Suites welcomed the delegation with a heartfelt speech. He observed: “Qatar is increasingly positioning itself as first-class financial and tourism destination in the region. This presents us with a unique opportunity that’s driving demand for quality hotels. Corp Executive Hotels is an outstanding brand specially designed for business travellers and we are delighted to be the first ones to flag it off in Qatar.” Al Kuwari International Group has several other projects under development.
Michel Noblet, President & CEO, HMH thanked the hosts for their warm welcome and hospitality and said: “The resilience of Qatari market in the face of the global slowdown has everything to do with the growth of the country’s economy. In just the first quarter of this year, Qatar has attracted over 1.8 million visitors which highlights the hotel sector’s potential. We are truly glad to be in this booming destination and are keen to develop more hotels.”
The evening highlights included a show-around of the newly opened deluxe hotel conveniently located just 5 minutes from Doha International Airport and Doha Corniche. The hotel offers 60 luxurious suites equipped with outstanding facilities and the latest technology including dual-line phones and voice messaging, high speed Internet connections, digital flat screen LCD televisions and satellite channels among other features.
The hotel has two restaurants, conference facilities, business centre, a roof-top swimming pool, male and female Moroccan bath and steam room and a fully-equipped gym.

Fifa World Cup 2022 Host Country

The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid is the successful proposal from the government of Qatar to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Qatar, with a population of 1.69 million people, will be the first Arab state to host the World Cup.^[1] Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, son of the present Emir of Qatar, was the chairman of the bid committee.^[2] Qatar promoted their hosting of the tournament as representing the Arab World, and has drawn support from across the member states of the Arab League. They also positioned their bid as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the Arab World and the West.^[3]
Qatar gave a feel of what the World Cup would be like by holding a friendly match between Brazil and Argentina.^[4] Furthermore, people coming from different nations visited Qatar for this match and strengthened the image Qatar would depict of their interest in the World Cup 2022. Additionally, Qatar hosted the 2011 Asian Cup which had the lowest attendance for the cup in 11 years, since the tournament was held in Lebanon.^[5] It was considered a warm-up for 2022.
President of FIFA Sepp Blatter endorsed the idea of having a World Cup in the Arab World, saying in April 2010, "The Arabic world deserves a World Cup. They have 22 countries and have not had any opportunity to organise the tournament." Blatter also praised Qatar's progress, "When I was first in Qatar there were 400,000 people here and now there are 1.6 million. In terms of infrastructure, when you are able to organise the Asian Games (in 2006) with more than 30 events for men and women, then that is not in question."^[6] On 2 December 2010, it was announced that Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.<sup>[7]

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_2022_FIFA_World_Cup_bid</sup>

Rental rate ‘declined in second quarter’

Weak demand growth and a continuous rise in supply have led to a “slight” ease in rents in Qatar in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, according to a Century 21 report.
The report also found that mid and long-term returns of real estate projects over the next few years are “feasible” despite the current imbalance of supply and demand.
“Overall, change in apartment rental rates over the months of Q2 was slightly negative,” it said.
The highest declines were seen in Bin Omran (more than 4%) while areas such as Al Matar and Bin Mahmoud saw a positive growth of 2% and 1% respectively, it said.
The average growth of apartment rental rates in the entire areas understudy has registered a positive 5% increase during April 2011 and two consecutive declines in the next months (May and June) at 1% and 5%, respectively, Century 21 said, adding, hence, apartment rents declined 1% in Doha over Q2 of this year.
“Rent declines are expected to continue over the next two months (summer vacation), while activity will rise after the end of the Holy month of Ramadan and before the start of school season,” it said.
However, villa rents have seen a better performance than apartments where some villa areas saw growth of rents; it said observing that the highest decline in rents was seen in Ain Khaled and Muraikh at 8% and 6% respectively, while Al Waab area saw the highest growth at 7%.
Overall, change in villa rents over Q2 recorded an increase of 1% in April and two consecutive declines of 1% during May and June. Hence, villa rents in Doha declined 1% between April and June 2011, it said.
On real estate transactions, it found that the total value recorded during Q2 of this year reached approximately QR7bn over 12 weeks starting from the beginning of April 2011. The last four weeks (May 29th to June 25th) have seen QR2.3bn in real estate purchases registered which is a relatively high figure.
Exceptional transactions at high prices were seen more often in investment areas such as Al Sadd, Bin Mahmoud and Al Dafnah. In addition, the market witnessed a number of deals to sell commercial and residential multi-storey buildings, of which one tower at least in the West Bay area, it said.
“Though growing continuously, the volume of real estate transactions remains modest as transactions are limited to local traders while foreign investments are yet to come,” it said.
On the commercial office rental market, Century 21 said high volume of supply and the continuous delivery of office space in the market are “still casting a long shadow over office rental rates”.
Leasing rates have seen declines of 2% on a monthly basis over the months of Q2 2011. In total, office leasing rates saw almost 9% decline since the beginning of the year, it said, adding slow growth of demand is also delaying recovery of the commercial real estate sector.
However, the government is still trying to lend a hand to property owners by leasing their properties on a long term basis, it found.
Despite the current imbalance of supply and demand, studies indicate that mid and long-term returns of project over the next few years are feasible, thanks to government plans and a broad economic recovery anticipated.
“It is anticipated that the next months, after the seasonal holidays, demand will improve and a better performance will be witnessed in the office space sector,” the report said.


Link:  http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=445453&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Investors gain QR41.97bn as DSM soars

Investors on the Qatari bourse became richer by a staggering over $11bn (QR41.97bn) in a single trading day yesterday as stocks rallied massively on reports of the government pumping an incredible QR15bn into the local banking system.

The 20-share main index of the bourse, the Doha Securities Market (DSM), shot up more than 390 points in a tizzy, to almost reach the 7,000-mark (6,981). The rise in percentage terms was 5.92.

“Banking is a key sector on the Qatari bourse so the impact of the state support has been so overwhelming,” said analyst

Thamer Hssan.

The counters have the potential to impact all other sectors, he added.

Reopening after weekly closure, during which the key government announcement came, the bourse witnessed feverish demand, pushing the lenders’ stocks up by a record 7.65 percent.

Doha Bank led the gainers on the index with a 9.97 percent jump. Qatar Islamic Bank trailed in with a marginally less percentage gain in an overall rally which analysts attributed to the state setting up a QR15bn ($4.1bn) fund to buy banks’ property portfolios.

This is the third time since the onset of the global recession late last year that the state has propped up listed banks pumping billions of riyals into the system. The latest support is aimed at pushing more liquidity into the banking industry so that lending to the real estate sector

is not affected.

The move aims at making sure that the record growth levels the national economy has been witnessing might not get adversely impacted, even slightly, due to the slowdown in the real
estate sector.

As a result, real estate stocks also rose on the back of increased demand. Barwa and Qatar Real Estate showed advances by more than five and six percent, respectively. Industrial counters witnessed the second largest increase after the banking stocks, while the insurance sector advanced a little more than two percent.

Trading value soared to breach the QR1bn-mark (QR1.19bn). It normally hovers around QR500m to QR600m levels. Trading volumes were close to the 40 million mark.

More than 15,400 deals were concluded by the close of trading. “This is one of the highest rallies on the DSM this year, the last being early in March,” said Hassan. “You can see that 37 of the 38 stocks that were traded yesterday were up.”

Original Article from: The Peninsula

Qatar to record highest GDP growth in world

Qatar’s per capita income has crossed the magical $70,000-mark making it one of the top 10 wealthiest nations in the world.

The country is also poised to report the highest economic growth in the world for the current year, says a prominent Kuwait-based financial

research firm.

Global Investment House said in a country report yesterday, quoting Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA), that Qatar’s per capita income was lifted to a record $70,630 as nominal gross domestic product (GDP) soared to a landmark QR372.4bn ($102.3bn) for 2008 with a growth of 44 percent. While Qatar Central Bank (QCB) estimates suggest a seven to nine percent economic growth for the current year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts real GDP growth at 15 to 18 percent.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), on the other hand, projects real GDP growth of 13.4 percent, said Global. “According to such estimates, Qatar is on the way to reporting the highest economic growth in the world
for 2009.”

Original Article from: The Peninsula