1. MARKET UPDATE DUBAI COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE Issue 1
Market
Update
Dubai
Commercial
Real Estate
Issue Date
ABOUT LJ HOOKER IN THIS ISSUE
Heritage
LJ Hooker has an exciting and impressive
heritage of innovation, perseverance and
bold decision-making. The company's strong
people-focused culture was established and
defined by its founding visionary: Leslie
Joseph "LJ" Hooker. A constant innovator,
entrepreneur and devotee of best practice, he
changed the way real estate business was
conducted inAustralia.
Showing his entrepreneurial spirit early, LJ
founded his real estate business in 1928,
opening the first LJ Hooker Limited office in
the Sydney suburb of Maroubra. During the
1950s, LJ rapidly expanded his business to
create a vast empire, which covered every
aspect of real estate. By 1960 he had created
the country's first national real estate agency
network, and subsequently wasthe pioneer of
franchising in Australia. By 1970 LJ's
residential and commercial divisions were not
only the largest sales and management
agents in the country but also the largest
home developers.
Today, LJ Hooker Limited is one of the
largest real estate agency franchise systems
in Australasia with700 franchises across
Australia, New Zealand, India, Japanand
China. In keeping withLJ's tradition of
trailblazing, the company has now launched
LJ Hooker Middle East withtheir first two
offices are situatedin Dubai UAE.
LJ Hooker UAE
The UAE team comprises a LJ Hooker GCC
Head Franchise Group, whoare responsible
for brand establishment and franchise
network development; LJ Hooker Project
Marketing, who are busy partnering with
developers to successfully market, sell and
manage real estate developments across the
UAE and the LJ Hooker worldwide network;
and LJ Hooker Dubai, a franchise real estate
office offering residential and commercial
sales and leasingas well as portfolio and
property management.
The teams collectively have been achieving
goals and building brand recognition, listed
below are some of their performance report
card highlights:
Top 10% LJ Hooker Offices
LJH Dubai achieved and has maintained
positioning within the top 10% of LJ Hooker
worldwide offices since August 2014 (LJ
Hooker operating 820 offices across 10
countries)
3rd Dubai’s Best Property
Broker Service Award
LJ Hooker Dubai achieved Third Place –
Dubai’s Best Property Broker Service Award
in Dec 2014 in the Propertyfinder.ae’s Real
Estate Awards
www.ljhooker.ae and Growing
Digital Profile
LJ Hooker’s online profile achieved ranking
withinthe top 8% of real estate companies
(600 companies utilisingthe website) by
PropertyFinder.com. The ranking of 48th
overall and 34th in Dubai

2. MARKET UPDATE DUBAI COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE | Issue 1 2
The current Population of the UAE has been
measured at 9.44 million (making it the 93rd
most populated country inthe world) up from
9.3 in 2013, this will continue to grow as the
Expo 2020 draws closer. It isestimatedthat by
2020 the population will be around the 9.7
million mark, creating 275,000 new jobs and
seeinga freshinjection of over 23billionto the
economy. Currently the UAE has the highest
immigration rate in the world of 21.71, of the
current UAE population only 13% is UAE
Nationals.
The business importance of Dubai continues
to grow seeing it recently become the 10th
most influential city inthe world. This willonly
improve as tourism and hospitality increased
by 6.7 billion contributing 12.74 billion
dirhams in 2014 alongside the year on year
population growth and high immigration
rates. Presently, the UAE holds the accolades
of further strengthening its increasing global
importance and exposure by being 120th for
Global Competitiveness and 22nd for ease of
doing business in the world. The for
mentioned factors have led to very strong
performances within direct foreign trade,
producing improving figures of 545 million
dirhams in imports compared to 402 million
dirhams in 2013 and 126 million dirhams in
exports compared to 74 millionin 2013.
NEW BUSINESS LICENSES
SOURCE
Dubai Chamber of Commerce
The SME market in Dubai is playing a huge
part in its success by contributing 40% of the
national GDP and employing 51% of the
workforce, over 60% of the SME’s do20% plus
of their sales revenue from international and
export channels. Institutions such as the Dubai
chambers commerce are reporting an
overwhelming18% increase inmembership in
2014 compared to 2013, 16,198 from 13,962
previously with an overall membership
number totaling 152,962 (up 10.8%).
During my attendance of the SME Summit
event 2015, I learnt some alarming facts and
figures, these being the economy is made up
of 92% of SME’s yet only 4% of bank lending
goes to SME’s. The rejection rate of SME
application is75% andonly 11% of SME’sapply
through the bank for funding. The main factor
for the application rejections being lack of
asset and substantial collateral, average
lending requests range from 100,000 to
500,000 dirhams. Peer to Peer lending is
quickly becoming an alternative solution to
find SME financing with successful platforms
already working inthe US and UK. Presently it
is reported over 9 billion US dollars available
worldwide and ready to invest, this figure
could reach 1 trillionif it continues to increase
at current levels. The Pier to Pier investing
platform reduces SME financial interest rates
by up to 30%, meaning more capital is
available towards the business.
In 2014 business license number across the
board (cancelled, renewal and new)
performed strong from Q1to Q3. New
licenses set up over the three quarters
combined totaled 14,685 with2,387
businesses cancelling their licenses over the
same time period. The most telling figure
that demonstrates the ever growing
Importance, impact and influence of the UAE
Global market is the renewal numbers
(86,116 businesses).
Population at a Glance
Populationof 9.44million up
from 9.3million in 2013
93rd
most populated country
Only 13%ofUAENationals
Populationpredicted to grow
to 9.7 million by 2020
Highest migration rate in the
worldat 21.71
Dubai’s Economy
by Matthew Scott
Changing Economy
Impacting on SMEs and
the Commercial Real
Estate Landscape

3. MARKET UPDATE DUBAI COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE | Issue 1 3
COMMERCIALMARKET AT A GLANCE
Commercial Property Market
Over the last 6 months 833 sales transactions
involving commercial offices have been
completed (532 within the last 3 months). The
total combined value of this being just under
1.5 billion dirhams seeing 1.2 billion square
feet having a new owner, the last 3 months
sales transactions has represented just under
a billion of that and just over 50% of the
transactions completed.
The last 6 months transactions records see a
mixture of fortunes in certain areas of Dubai.
Dubai Marina has only seen 11 transactions
completed as Business Bay continues to
remain the favorite business location with
426, with JLT a clear second favorite with 284
transactions. In terms of the representation of
the total square feet sold Business Bay shows
just under 625 million of the total 1.5 billion
square feet, JLT and Marina contributes just
over 335 million and 41 million square feet
respectively.
Average Price per sale inMarina as expected is
one of the highest around the 6.6 million(the
whole of Dubai average being 1.4 millionover
the last 3months, Business Bay and JLT has an
average of 1.5 million and 1.1 million.
The price per square of feet average in Dubai
over the last 3 months is 1,117 dirhams, JLT is
the cheapest at 971 dirhams per square feet
and Dubai Marina the highest at 1,838 dirhams
per square feet. Business Bay is very close to
mirroring the Dubai Average at 1,147 despite
its high numbers of transactions.
FAST FACTS
833 Transactions
1.5 Billion AED
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Downtown Properties
Boulevard Plaza
http://bit.ly/1BBrlaV
Burj Khalifa
http://bit.ly/1AJrlq1
Marina Properties
Marina Plaza
http://bit.ly/1F8qZjt
Business Bay Properties
Aspect Tower
http://bit.ly/1H2DHNT
Bay Square
http://bit.ly/1MQIWSG
JLT Properties
Mazaya Business Avenue BB2 Tower
http://bit.ly/18KLeWf
Palladium Tower
http://bit.ly/1EuNWYw
Pictures Above: Business Bay
Property Page – Follow the
Links to detailed Information

4. MARKET UPDATE DUBAI COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE | Issue 1 4
Matthew Scott – LJ Hooker
Since moving to the UAE, Matthew has lived in both Dubai and Abu
Dhabi developing knowledge in wealthmanagement and the residential
and commercial real estate industry. In the UK, he worked with large
multinational companies such as Experian performing roles involving
analysing and measuring commercial risk, vetting client relationships
and debt collection strategies.
Matthew’s motivation is to learn from all experiences by
developing personal strength’s and reducing weaknesses and
thus promoting the company and himself in the best possible
manner at all times.
Matthew is aforward thinking and being proactive in hiseveryday
approach to work.
Through his detailed understanding of both the market place and
needs of clients, Matthew can offer well rounded and informative
commercial real estate advice
Market
Update
Dubai
Commercial
Real Estate
LJ Hooker Real Estate
Al ZarouniBusinessCentre
Suite 309,Al Barsha
Sheikh ZayedRoad
Dubai UAE
www.ljhooker.ae
Your Broker of Choice