Sameh Fam, managing director, ASGC

“The general view is that we will not see as many new residential developments in Dubai in the coming years. In my opinion, this will probably be fine for the real estate industry in the long term. The construction industry will be forced to diversify during this period, and this is something that we are already focused on through our infrastructure and oil and gas business streams and our presence in other jurisdictions.

More generally, my view is that Q3 and Q4 of 2021 will be a positive time for Dubai, assuming that the pandemic is brought under control and global economies can begin to recover.  Dubai should be a huge beneficiary of this as a hub focused on innovation and with Expo 2020 drawing visitors who will be eager to travel again and return to normality.

In addition, several new projects were delayed due to the epidemic in 2020, and we expect a slow recovery in the construction sector in H1 2021, with more focus on medium sized projects.

However, we anticipate in H2 of 2021 – and following the EXPO – that there will be a surge in the number of new projects.

COVID-19 accelerated the impact of the issues in construction industry that we had to find solutions for by adopting more efficient ways of thinking, different ways of procuring or the sourcing of more environmentally friendly materials. The underlying issues challenging the industry have not changed – but the pandemic has simply expedited the need to find solutions to pre-existing challenge.

Clearly, 2021 is likely to be another difficult year for the construction industry.  In 2020, many businesses were able to rely on strong 2018/2019 financials to support continuity but that will not be the case for many in 2021.  Cost cutting measures brought in during the pandemic may not be feasible for such a sustained period and it is likely that we will see more companies go under in the coming months.”