Emaar Chairman Mohamed Alabbar has said that he is keen on expanding company’s franchise abroad while the company has introduced the mechanisms to tackle speculation and prevent a new bubble from happening, the Gulf Today reported.

He said, “While our primary focus in the initial years of the company’s operations has been Dubai, where we pioneered integrated master-planned communities, geographic expansion to high-growth international markets has been an integral part of our growth strategy. Today, we have established operations in several markets spanning the Middle East, North Africa, Pan-Asia, Europe and North America.

“Apart from the UAE, we have ongoing projects in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Turkey, USA, Italy, and Canada. We are targeting annual revenues from international markets to reach 20 to 25 per cent in the next few years.”

He said, “International expansion is part of our business strategy to create long-term value for our stakeholders by replicating our Dubai business model and leveraging our execution competencies in design, project management and sales. In fact, our international land bank is over 226 million square metres, and the value of our future projects in global markets is over $67 billion.”

In response to a question: “There were plans to expand into the UK and France. Is expansion beyond your core region still on the cards?”, the Emaar chairman said, “Currently, we are focused on the high growth markets in the Middle East and North Africa region, the Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.”

About Dubai’s real estate market, the chairman said, the Government of Dubai has introduced several initiatives to ensure the long-term stability of the real estate sector including the setting up of Escrow accounts for property developments, which has strengthened investor confidence.