BizBahrain_December_2016

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Interview | James Moore property management, valuation, market research, development consultancy, international property sales, international investments and dispute resolution. As you can see it really is a ‘one stop shop’ offering. What are the steps you take to increase your customer base? The next few months will be extremely busy for us, not to mention there is National Day, the Prophet’s Birthday and Christmas coming up this month. We will be holding a launch event in January next year to introduce the new partnership we have with Savills. We have numerous new international properties to market and we plan to host some marketing events spread over the first quarter of 2017. Due to Savills’s global reach we have properties all over the world as well as here in Bahrain. and international properties. Our clients come from all walks of life, we have housed individuals, families, company staff, government officials from embassies and military personnel. We also work with a variety of investors to identify suitable properties that meet their requirements. Our aim is to deliver the highest standard of service to all our clients, we want to be the real estate agency of choice in Bahrain. Do you operate in the regional and international property markets too? Yes there are a large number of people in Bahrain who want to invest in real estate, whether it is here or abroad. Bahraini and GCC citizens have quite a large appetite for real estate investment, particularly in Europe. We are always looking to improve our offering to clients here in Bahrain and across the region and I have some very exciting news to tell you… What is this exciting news you have to tell us? I’m very happy to tell you that on 1 December 2016 we signed a partnership agreement with Savills here in Bahrain, so from now on we will be working under the prestigious Savills brand. Savills is one of the largest real estate companies in the world and has enormous amounts of experience, which we will benefit from. It is headed up in the Northern Gulf by Mr Donald Bradley, a hugely experienced real estate professional, who has been in the region for over 30 years. It also significantly increases the service lines we can offer clients, by working together our offering will now cover; local sales and lettings, Savills has also been appointed by the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments to be the real estate advisor to the Judicial Committee for Stalled Real Estate Projects and will also act as the exclusive sales agent for the first stalled project to be sold - we aim to have more details of this in the next month or two. They say bricks and mortar are one of the best investments you can make. How is the property and real estate industry riding the market fluctuations and uncertainties in the economy? Well, I’ll be the first to admit that the market is a little slow at the moment, but as I have always said, if you are offering quality products and quality service, there is still demand out there. One thing I would like to add is that over the last few months the talk is much more positive than it has been. Business seems to be picking up and there are more opportunities. There are developers selling buildings before they’re even built. They 30 December 2016
Interview | James Moore say bricks and mortar are one of the best investments you can make, but ultimately it depends what you want to do, where your strategy, your end goal is. Our end goal is to be the real estate company of choice in Bahrain. I want people to come to us because they’ve heard good things, their friends told them about us or their colleagues talk about the high quality service they received or they’ve seen our marketing and they associate or relate with us as a company. As the government continues to focus on attracting tourists to the country I hope that international investment continues to grow in Bahrain. We always put our customers first and just to give some context to that: We housed a family in a rental apartment earlier this year. After a month the feedback was very negative from our client so we stopped marketing the properties in that building and rehoused them in another building which I’m delighted to say they are very happy with. This cost the company money, a small amount, but it still cost us income. Having happy clients is more important to us than money, because at the end of the day, if you don’t have happy clients you don’t have a business. Can you give our readers some tips on what to look out for when shopping for property in Bahrain? I have a few. I am slightly biased, but if you’re not familiar with Bahrain and the property market here, find a good agent - a reputable agent will help you locate a quality property that meets your requirements and will be able to advise you on a fair rent or sale price. Obviously, we at Savills would be happy to help, but I’m also pleased to say there are other good agents out there too. The second tip would be, think as much as possible about your requirements and your budget. With requirements it makes it much easier for us if you know what are the ‘have to haves’ and the ‘like to haves’ - what is a deal maker and what is a deal breaker. With budgets, I have found that when you ask people what their budget is, they always go as low as possible, even though it is actually a bit higher. I understand the reasons behind this but if you use Savills, we ask that you trust us and give us an accurate budget - we will show you the best properties that are priced within that range. We will not show you things that are 10% or 20% more to try and tempt you to spend a little bit more money. We operate to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Savills code of ethics so transparency and integrity are always at the forefront of our minds. The third one may sound bizarre, but I would suggest to limit the amount of properties you look at. A lot of our clients want to see every property, and sometimes that is 10 or 20 properties. Doing that is very time consuming for both parties, but more importantly it quite often confuses things for the client. That’s why I say knowing what you want is very important. My final tip is don’t be rushed into anything. At Savills we are not ‘typical’ sales people, yes we try to sell and rent things, but we understand the importance of our clients taking the time to ensure they are making the right decision. It’s a very important decision where you are going to live, probably one of the most important decisions you’ll make so take a bit of time and make sure you make the right choice. It’s a bit of a paradox, but also keep in mind, that if you are looking for property in the popular areas of Bahrain these can, and do, go within days, especially in peak season - before and after summer. There is no dearth of new properties coming up in Bahrain. Do you have clients abroad approach you looking to invest in Bahrain? There is definitely a strong demand for property in Bahrain from GCC nationals, they see Bahrain as a popular place to own a holiday home or to invest in real estate as the returns on offer are attractive to them. In my own experience, Saudi and Kuwaiti citizens make up the majority of the GCC buyers here. While the demand is predominantly from Bahraini and GCC citizens, there is also demand seen from other nationalities. We have had numerous clients from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and India to name a few. We have also had clients from the UK and other European countries looking to buy here, mainly expatriates that have been in the region for a long time and are looking to retire here. This has been made much easier with the ability for people to selfsponsor through property ownership. As the government continues to focus on attracting tourists to the country I hope that international investment continues to grow in Bahrain, this can only be good for the industry. There is definitely a strong demand for property in Bahrain from GCC nationals So what’s next for Savills and for you personally? My team and I look forward to working with Savills, as I’ve said, we will be working hard over the next few months to ensure we get off to the best possible start. While Savills is one of the largest and highly regarded real estate companies in the world, I look forward to playing my part in growing the brand within Bahrain and the wider region. Then it’s much of the same - getting out and building relationships with people across Bahrain and internationally, pushing hard to be the real estate company of choice and delivering the highest levels of service we can to our clients. Reena Abraham December 2016 31
Page 1 and 2: December 2016 1
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS December 2016 34 | Sustain
Page 11 and 12: Securing Your World G4S is the worl
Page 13 and 14: BAHRAIN CELEBRATES NATIONAL DAY The
Page 15 and 16: eL SEED Artist Arabic calligraphy.
Page 17 and 18: Thank you for this wonderful opport
Page 21 and 22: Round Table | Silah Gulf bizbahrain
Page 23 and 24: Round Table | Silah Gulf ZAINAB RAS
Page 25 and 26: You are one step closer, to becomin
Page 27 and 28: efore they buy. We also as a compan
Page 29: Interview | James Moore “I joined
Page 33 and 34: Interview | PyroGreen an essential
Page 35 and 36: Mariam Fakhro, Areej Rajab and many
Page 37 and 38: SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES FOR BAHR
Page 39 and 40: OBG | Business Report bin Isa Al Kh
Page 41 and 42: Expert Opinion | Information Techno
Page 43 and 44: 2016. The SLRB figures show the val
Page 45 and 46: CBRE | Real Estate Analysis Bahrain
Page 49 and 50: Focus | Trust Formation has become
Page 51 and 52: When it comes to real estate, we se
Page 53 and 54: SWISS STARTUP COMPETITION COMES TO
Page 55 and 56: DODGE CHARGER Charger’s amped-up
Page 57 and 58: often miss things that happen, perh
Page 59 and 60: Government The American Chamber of
Page 63 and 64: Banking & Finance GIB launches new
Page 67 and 68: Telecom OOKLA Award for Batelco Bat
Page 69 and 70: YEAR YEAR 150,000 KM 5 WARRANTY ROA
Page 71 and 72: Real Estate Seef Properties to Deve
Page 75 and 76: Technology Bahrain Delegates Partic
Page 77 and 78: Automotive Installment Options for
Page 79 and 80: FUELED BY www.ahmedzayani.com /azay
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一甀琀爀椀琀椀漀渀
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Top 15 GCC banks on Social Media* 5
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