Middle East Set to Be Third Largest Property Investor
By Bince Mandapam

Tony M Horrell, worldwide director for Jones Lang LaSalle, informed Gulf News document oil earnings of the Gulf nations and the diversification of regional economic climates is leading Middle East capitalists to make significant investments in home outside their house markets.

" After a few years of absence, Middle East funds are once more investing greatly in the US, complied with by Europe."

According to Jones Lang LaSalle's latest Global Property Resources Report, Middle East capitalists invested virtually $6 billion in buying foreign industrial property in the initial fifty percent of 2006, $4 billion in the United States and $2 billion in Europe, generally the UK.

" My quote is that this figure for the Middle East will get to $15 billion by the end of the year on the basis of the transactions that are under way," Horrell said.

That would certainly make the Middle East the world's third-largest purchaser of industrial property in foreign markets after the United States and Germany, he added.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which recently obtained Dubai's RSP Group, has determined the GCC region as a key source of global resources versus a backdrop of the increasing financial investment by Middle Eastern financiers in worldwide real estate markets. The main buyers consist of private equity funds and family members offices.

The year 2006 is also on target to be an additional record year as overall straight property investments approach $600 billion, up from some $480 billion in 2005, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. http://www.estatesdubai.com