The Financial Crisis of 2008 set the ball rolling on what can be dubbed as “retailpocalypse” – a widespread closure of brick-and-mortar retail stores. Over the past decade, while physical stores succumbed to the digital revolution, e-commerce has witnessed exponential growth. With ...

A French court recently ruled that the COVID-19 pandemic is a ‘Force Majeure’(1). The same court, which was reluctant to designate epidemics such as Chikungunya and Ebola under the same category in the past, provided a lawful excuse to non-performance of a real estate contract, provided ...

As a sector that accounted for 13.6% of the Emirate’s GDP in 2019, real estate is central to the grand ambitions of the country. It is therefore understandable why the UAE top brass laid special emphasis on the real estate sector in recent months, leading to a slew of measures. Notably, a spec...

Excess economic dependency on the oil and gas industry is gradually becoming a thing of the past for the Middle East. A prolonged downturn and dampened outlook have incentivized governments to renounce their long-standing reliance on fossil fuels and invest in diversification strategies. In fact, th...

The COVID-19 outbreak has upended what was generally perceived as “normal circumstances”. The longer the crisis persists, chances are that we could reach a point of no return, where consumers will align their expectations with the transformative change. The impact has already begun to ta...

Real estate trends, by virtue of their nature, are dynamic. Although they typically outlast business cycles, they can change multiple times in a single cycle as well. The year 2019 was characterized by muted global economic growth, market volatility, geopolitical issues and trade standoffs, which im...

In recent years, sustainable development has emerged as a major social concern and an area of concerted policy focus in the hallways of political power. The word ‘sustainable’ is being prefixed to critical endeavours such as growth, energy, engineering, construction, living and future de...

The basic premise of an experience economy posits that customers are not merely purchasing a product but buying into an experience. Lately, the customer experience (CX) landscape is evolving across asset classes and geographies, including real estate and its verticals. As a testament to the growing ...

Sustainable construction comes of age It is estimated that approximately 5 billion metric ton of concrete is being produced yearly, across the world. Construction industry’s traditional reliance on concrete as the primary building material necessitates huge quantities of cement production, whi...