Barwa Real Estate Group, the leading real estate and investment company in Qatar and the region, reported QR586m net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company for the period ending June 30, 2020.
Earnings per share of the property giant amounted to QR0.15, an increase of 15 percent over the corresponding period of last year. The total assets of the group amounted to QR31.7bn and the total equity of the shareholders of the parent company amounted to QR 19.7 bn.
Despite the challenges facing the real estate market as a result of the COVID-19pandemic, the group has succeeded in enhancing its operating revenues represented by increasing the net rental income by 10 percent, as a result of the group’s keenness to develop a balanced real estate portfolio that helps to face market fluctuations and supports continuous operating revenues.
The group recently strengthened its real estate portfolio with many new operational projects, including Mukaynis Compound for Workers Accommodation. This project is one of the fruits of cooperation between Barwa Real Estate Company and the government of Qatar in order to support the efforts made by the government to improve the conditions of workers housing and meet the needs of the local market for workers housing in line with the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar’s preparations to host the Qatar World Cup 2022.
The project is located on Salwa Road and includes 3,170 housing units containing 25,360 residential rooms for workers in addition to shops, hypermarkets, mosques, a security center, a government service center, and bus and car parking. Barwa Real Estate has started leasing activities for the first phase of the project through its subsidiary Al-Waseef Asset Management during the month of July 2019 and as a result of the current conditions that Qatar is going through with the cooperation of all state institutions to combat and reduce the outbreak of the Corona virus epidemic, and based on the precautionary measures, the majority of the second and third phase housing units in the project were designated as a quarantine area.
The other project—Barwa Al Baraha Workshops & Storages— is the second stage of Barwa Al Baraha project, which includes 561 warehouses with an area of 300 square meters each, and 118 workshops with an area of 144 square meters each.
The current occupancy rate of the project is 98 percent for workshops and 64 percent in warehouses. Leasing process for the second phase of Al Khor Workers Sports Complex is going on. The project includes 516 apartments with a total construction area of 53,639 square meters in addition to a hypermarket and a multi-purpose hall, where construction work was completed at the end of the year 2019 and the project leasing was started in the second quarter of 2020.
The Dara (A) Project, which is the first stage of the Dara project located in Lusail City, where the project covers a land with an area of 16,412 square meters. The total construction area is 54,630 square meters. The project includes 271 apartments of various sizes.
The company has started offering project units for sale. The Group also continues to develop its real estate portfolio by developing many new projects, including the third phase of Madinat Mawater project, which began implementation on August 1, 2019 and is being implemented on a land area of 339 thousand square meters, to offer 118 used car showrooms, a hypermarket, car service centers, a car parts center, and a showroom for a car dealer. This stage is considered an extension of the first and second stages of the project.
In April 2020, the company’s bid submitted to the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) was chosen as the best bid submitted for the “Qatar Schools PPP Development Program – Package 1”. Barwa’s participation in the project remains subject to completion of the project agreements with Ashghal.
The group is currently working on completing the necessary procedures for contracting to start implementing two new projects in Al Wakra. It is planned that one of the two projects will be allocated as a residential complex for workers and the other as an integrated residential city for families.
The group is also working on studying the economic feasibility of many of the development projects proposed by the Public Works Authority with a public-private partnership system, and the participation of the group in any of these tenders will depend on the economic feasibility of it and its suitability with the group’s development strategy. The group is currently working on completing the necessary procedures for contracting to start implementing two new projects in Al Wakra.
It is planned that one of the two projects will be allocated as a residential complex for workers and the other as an integrated residential city for families.
