Qatar, a global investment hub for real estate, economic diversification

Key figures from Qatar’s investment landscape highlighted the country’s bid to emerge as a global investment destination in specific areas like the real estate sector during a panel discussion at the Qatar Real Estate Forum on Sunday.

The discussion titled ‘The National Economy: Development & Investment Opportunities’, included chief executives from Investment Promotion Agency Qatar (Invest Qatar), Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ), and Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), underscored the country’s commitment to economic diversification and its ambitious plans for the future.

Invest Qatar CEO Sheikh Ali Alwaleed al-Thani underscored the country’s three-stage growth strategy.

Following the development of the hydrocarbon sector and infrastructure culminating in the 2022 World Cup, Qatar is now focusing on its third national development strategy. Sheikh Ali noted that this strategy targets financial services, manufacturing, logistics, and ICT sectors, with a strong emphasis on human capital development.

“However, what underlines all this and what is central to the strategy is the growth of human capital. If you look at Qatar, traditionally where hydrocarbons played the leading driver of growth...we need to invest in our human capital. And this investment was evident through education, healthcare, and creating an environment that can attract and retain talent.

“The government is focused on building upon that and having that being the most significant growth driver into the future. I think Qatar targets that as an eventual outcome where our human capital innovation could be the main driver for growth,” Sheikh Ali emphasised.

QFZ CEO Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamid al-Thani, on the other hand, highlighted Qatar’s unique “one integrated family approach” to attracting investments, citing examples of successful public-private partnerships, which contribute to knowledge transfer and sustainability goals.

“Concerning the Qatar National Development Strategy, we are focused on diversifying the economy through three key sectors, such as manufacturing, logistics, and within the IT and digital space. But we’re also looking to enable knowledge transfer, and we do this by enabling public-private partnerships,” Sheikh Mohammed noted.

QFC CEO Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida detailed QFC’s role in providing a robust legal and regulatory framework for investors, explaining how the centre offers various structures, such as special purpose vehicles, holding companies, and trust structures to help investors manage risks in real estate investments.

Al-Jaida also revealed plans for innovation in the sector, including the potential tokenisation of real estate assets to increase accessibility and liquidity.

According to al-Jaida, Qatar’s ambitious targets include achieving 4% growth in the non-hydrocarbon sector and attracting $100bn in foreign direct investment (FDI) over the next seven years.

“All of us are involved in achieving that target. Within the clusters that are named in the National Development Strategy: manufacturing, logistics, and tourism, real estate is indirectly in every single one of those clusters because to develop these clusters, there’s always an indirect impact on the real estate sector because all these companies eventually attract investment and manpower. And that has an indirect impact on the real estate sector,” al-Jaida further explained.