UAE's Al-Futtaim to decide on Morocco build in 2010

* Plan is Al-Futtaim's third large-scale, mixed-use project

* Morocco, Egypt property markets not hit as hard as UAE

* Still on lookout for deals in other countries

By John Irish

DUBAI, July 7 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates fund manager Al-Futtaim Capital will make a final decision on whether to develop a multi-billion dollar property project in Morocco in about a year, a company executive said on Tuesday.

Dubai-based Al-Futtaim has an option to develop a 7 million square metre plot in Bouznika on the Moroccan Atlantic coast, but due to the risky financial climate, is in no rush to proceed, Managing Director Marwan Shehadeh told reporters.

"We are one year into our due diligence and have one more year before closing," he said. "We have an option on this project and are doing our due diligence to exercise the option."

Major North African real estate projects have been delayed or quietly abandoned as firms hit by the global downturn retreat from a frontier market dogged by an opaque business environment and heavy bureaucracy.

The Gulf Arab region's second-largest developer by market value, Emaar Properties EMAR.DU, last week pulled out of Algeria citing slow progress in a $20 billion project. [ID:nL4476016]

The Morocco project would be Al Futtaim Capital's third large-scale, mixed-use project after Dubai Festival City and Cairo Festival City.

Shehadeh saw more visibility in Moroccan and Egyptian property markets which had not been hit as hard as at home by the financial crisis and where there was a clear gap in supply and demand.

"Real estate is all about supply and demand...You go to markets where there is a gap and in Dubai there is a lack of clarity in supply and demand," he said.

"Egypt, Morocco's visibility is much more clear...you don't have the major macro issues."

Dubai's once-booming property market has been hit hard by the global financial crisis as property prices have slumped, developers cancel or slow projects and jobs are slashed.

The Morocco project would be the second investment of the $500 million Al Futtaim MENA Real Estate Development Fund launched more than two years ago and which Shehadeh said had only deployed about a third of its allocation.