Future economic trends and recovery prospects for the global economy will be at the top of the agenda at the Cityscape Global Real Estate Investment and Development Conference with Sam Chandan, Global Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Real Capital Analytics, delivering the keynote presentation.
Chandan, an adjunct professor of real estate at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the industry's most influential people according to Multi Housing News magazine, will assess the economic outlook for 2011 and beyond, giving his thoughts as to potential hotspots for investors and whether there will be a geographical shift in world financial centres and or change in ranking of the largest and fastest growing economies.
"In real estate markets, constraints on the availability of credit, certain government policies, and finite opportunities for liquid investors to acquire high quality, performing assets have delayed the global real estate market's return to full health," said Chandan.
Furthermore, Chandan will go on to explain about the different investment dynamics in both emerging and developed markets.
"There are some parts of the world where a history of sound fiscal policy will limit the impact from the unwinding of recent years' government interventions and where the property rights regime and financial sector regulation are clearly defined and Canada is a case in point. In contrast, an emerging economy like Brazil's has underlying demographic drivers of space demand that are simply not matched in amongst the most developed nations," he added.
The conference programme which runs in parallel with Cityscape Global at the Dubai World Trade Centre on 4-7 October 2010, will also feature Ethan Penner, President CBRE Capital Partners, CBRE's global real estate finance platform, who will join a panel discussion about the changing role, dynamics and future of private equity investment in global real estate.
Within the debate, Penner and his contemporaries, who include Marwan Shehadeh, MD, of UAE-based Al Futtaim Capital and Nabil Sawabini, Chairman and CEO of MENA Capital in Lebanon, will discuss the rebalancing of portfolios to stabilise funds and new approaches to deal sourcing that capture value and mitigate risk.
"Many investors are going back to basics as they seek more certainty and stability in an attempt to ensure both a protection of principal as well as favourable returns. The downturn has caused investors to reconsider their appetite for risk and it seems that they are less likely to stretch for massive returns that are based on very optimistic assumptions and/or extraordinary risk-taking," said Penner.
Other topics to be covered at the conference include assessing the economic outlook for the Middle East, Dubai: Reconstructing and repositioning a global leader and Developed versus Emerging versus Frontier markets; Assessing the opportunities and calculating risks.
"A new world order is already developing, which in many ways is highlighted by the contrast between the emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the more mature PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) economies. BRIC economies have recorded strong growth whilst although the PIIGS economies have come out of recession, growth levels are less than one per cent, with the spectre of a double-dip recession. It's a classic swing of risk versus reward," said Chris Speller, Group Director for Cityscape
In addition to the Real Estate Investment and Development Conference, Cityscape Global will also host the World Architecture Congress (WAC) and Retail City conference.
2010 is the ninth year that a Cityscape event will be held in Dubai and Cityscape Global is an integral part of the largest business-to-business real estate investment and development brand in the world. Last years event welcomed more than 200 exhibiting companies and 38,000 participants from 115 countries.
