Damac holding roadshow events across four Chinese cities

Dubai developer to host events for more than 8,000 brokers and investors in four Chinese cities.

Damac Properties will host a series of training sessions next month across China and Taiwan to promote investment opportunities across its portfolio in Dubai.

The Dubai-based developer, which announced a tie-up with China’s third-biggest broker, 5i5j, last month, will host training programmes with the firm in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tianjian that will be attended by 7,000 Chinese brokers and 1,200 property investors.

The events will take place between August 22 and 30.

It said that investment from China into Dubai’s property market last year increased by 300 per cent year-on-year to Dh1.3 billion.

Damac is sending a "high-level" delegation to attend the events in the four cities, which will brief attendees on Dubai's real estate laws and investment rules.

“There is a big desire for top- quality property in Dubai from Chinese buyers and we expect to see investment top 100bn yuan [Dh59.16bn] over the next few years as more investors turn to Dubai,” said Hu Jinghui, the vice-president of 5i5j, an agency with 38,000 brokers which sells a property every four minutes.

“We see this being one of our biggest international markets in the coming years.”

Damac’s senior vice-president Niall McLoughlin said that “a big chemistry” has developed between his firm and 5i5j since they were first introduced four months ago. Moreover, despite the recent slide in Chinese equities, which have declined in value by 30 per cent since the market peaked in mid-June, he is confident of the success of its partnership.

“China is an untapped market for Dubai developers and to date they have been very impressed with the investment opportunities in the city. The Chinese want to protect their wealth and the only way to do it is through investments.

“We have seen for more than a year now that interest and investment from China is growing for the Dubai real estate market, and over the long term we believe this will be a key area.”

Damac also has projects outside the UAE in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and last week launched the Aykon Nine Elms tower in London – a scheme in which the developer has a 20 per cent stake, and its founding chairman Hussain Sajwani has 80 per cent.

Mr Sajwani also said that Damac was planning further launches in London, which would be marketed to investors in the UK, Middle East and Asia.

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