UAE's Aldar focuses on home market as crisis bites

LONDON (Reuters) - Aldar Properties ALDR.AD, Abu Dhabi's top property developer by market value, will focus on projects in the emirate for the next five years, looking to weather the sharp downturn in its local market, Aldar's chief said.

"I think we've got at least the next nine months of continuing great caution and flat market performance here," Aldar Chief Executive John Bullough told the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit on Tuesday.

"And I think market-matching quality and location is going to be really critical factors for the next year."

Of state-controlled Aldar's singular focus on Abu Dhabi, Bullough said: "Right now, for the foreseeable future, I guess we're talking about a five-year minimum time horizon."

The stance is a turnaround from a year ago, when Bullough's predecessor, Ronald Barrott, told Reuters that Aldar was looking at acquisitions in the United States and Europe.

He also said Aldar was negotiating a number of new projects as it continued its transition toward becoming an asset manager. He declined to give details on the projects.

"We are in detailed discussions on a number of new initiatives in this area," Bullough said. He declined to discuss the firm's debt profile.

"We are probably at about 90 percent (developer), 10 percent (asset management) at the moment, but over a 10-year period you would probably see that (ratio) flipping."

Aldar's land bank totals about 50 million square meters, of which 15 million to 20 million square meters are under development, plus the 12-million-square-meter Al Falah affordable housing project, Bullough said.

"I think that we're going to be seeing greater moves in terms of mix into the more affordable end of the residential development," Bullough said, adding that government and infrastructure projects would also figure.

"I think there's likely to be an increased focus on government projects, certainly in the medium term, because that's one of the key drivers."

Aldar's development projects include leisure destination Yas Island and waterfront city Al Raha Beach as well as its mixed-use redevelopment Central Market.