When current projects reach maturity, will the market be saturated with high-end residential property?
With so many projects of a similar nature coming onto the market there will definitely be some kind of saturation. To what extent boils down to a number of factors. Liquidity is a big factor and how quickly markets recover is another. If people are making money then they will buy more property. Another critical factor for us in the GCC is the level of expatriates and a number of those projects are targeted at expatriates who may be moving out and going back to their home country. There is going to be a decrease of expat population and those coming in are not going to be at the same income level. That’s going to have an impact at the high-end properties. We’ve probably already seen this in the UAE where high-end properties have taken a significant beating, compared to the middle-income side of the market and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens here. Bahrain is still ok, but there still is a point of resistance.
