Name: Building the Cities of Tomorrow
Uploaded: 2025-10-29
Duration: 11 min 11 s

A new map of global growth is emerging as real estate, advanced manufacturing, and technology come together to shape the cities of tomorrow. Across the Gulf and other emerging hubs, rising demand for luxury living, cross-border investment, and industrial transformation are redefining where and how cities grow. Hear insights from top leaders shaping this transformation as they explore how design, infrastructure, and sustainability are building the next generation of connected, competitive, and future-ready cities.

Building the Cities of Tomorrow

Conferences

Good afternoon everyone, um. It's great pleasure to, to be here and to, to welcome the ad on stage and, um, one of the most dynamic developers in the region around the world, um, for the super luxury, uh, real estate buyer, which, so you have your checkbooks ready to, to, to buy after this session, because this man is a great salesman. Among other people, he introduced, uh, Donald Trump to The the region and, and got him investing here and being a business partner. I wanted to, I mean, our theme today is building communities, the cities of tomorrow. And I suppose I'm, I'm gonna start with this question about the luxury and and how you build in a way that does build community rather than building just exclusive, disconnected places for For the super rich, how do you think about that challenge? You see, building comes from a demand as as opposed to what people think we don't want to just go and build and look for customers. We first identify. The demand. And once you've identified the demand, we have to service it. From the luxury segment. Yes, we see a lot of people demanding luxury products, especially in gateway cities. And we've seen a very nice trend in the last 4 to 5 years where people are looking for the limited editions of watches and cars and all the luxuries in life, and we said, why not do the limited edition of real estate for luxury real estate, which is the co-branded real estate. Obviously we co-brand with the companies that have a pedigree in interiors. They have a DNA in interiors. And at the same time, The core brand of luxury product is giving you a very good ROI because The demand is high and the supply is short. The brand is an aspirational brand, but for the luxury segment also, we always say we're giving you a lot of ROE. So ROI is a return on investment, ROE is a return on ego. Hm And so How do you do that in a way that is You know, helping to build a whole society out in the way that you're, you've done across the Gulf region. I mean, because luxury. And the super rich are essential, I think, in your view to building out a successful economy, a successful growth story. How, how do you make sure that those aren't little. Sort of enclaves that are separate from the rest, they actually drive the kind of vision that we're seeing here in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, but You come from the UK. Take Central London, for example. Central London is an area which is, which has evolved to be an area for the super rich, but at the same time it's an inclusive area. You have a social housing program. You have a lot of people who are servicing those super rich who are working in those areas are living in those social houses provided as part of the social housing program. It's very important when we think about these communities. You're not going to go and build a remote community and build walls around it. You have to put it in a place where it serves as an anchor. Because a luxury community in a city serves as an anchor for the city as the image of the city, and for example, we're seeing here in Riyadh, the evolution of an area called Daraya and Daraya Gate is one of the most important projects in the kingdom, and this project is serving to serve, yes. The rich and the super rich, but at the same time, it's inclusive. It's all, it also has a lot of developments around it for the people who are gonna work in that project and it has in it the entertainment aspect, the retail, the retail aspect and the cultural aspect. What makes you such a believer in, in the Gulf as a region for, you know, doing your kind of long-term real estate development projects that you're doing? You see, I've been working in the Gulf for 21 years, so we, we practice what we preach. We don't look at the, at the, at, at the Gulf as Riyadh and Jeddah or Doha. What is happening today in the GCC with an economy the size of the economy of Italy. Around $2 trillion. Now this region in terms of its dynamism, in terms of its infrastructure development, the evolution of its governance, the lifestyle, the speed and the stability has definitely one of the highest potential as areas to develop going forward. And just like Italy has at least 10 destination cities, we deserve in the Gulf to be looked at as one region with at least 10 destination cities from Riyadh to Jeddah, to Mecca, to Medina, to Dubai to Abu Dhabi to Doha. We should stop looking at it. This is Qatar competing with Dubai or Dubai competing with this. It's one region. And what you're seeing today, the general, the generalized tourist visa, the roads being built between the cities that the trains that are being that is connecting the cities, the massive investment in airlines and airports in these cities. This is creating a destination that if you're not investing in in the next 10 years. I don't know where you're putting your money, and this is a region, I mean, in Saudi Arabia is yet ready for investment by foreigners, you see, the law will take effect. In approximately 2 months, so January 1st, 2026, it's not a directive anymore, it's a law where Saudi has designated several projects to allow freehold foreign ownership, and if you invest 4 million riyals, you're also allowed to get a residency for life. And this is a very critical element coming into Saudi because we've seen it in other countries and we've seen the traction it brought to other countries, but once you do that in the biggest economy in the GCC, this is something different. This is why as a company we are investing 20 billion riyals just to bring in foreign buyers and foreign investors to the kingdom and Maybe I shouldn't say this, but we've tested it. So we've tested it twice, and we have to date 40 nationalities who invested with us in our projects in Riyadh and Jeddah, and this shows you even without the law coming into effect, people are interested to come and invest here as the innovators in a new destination. Now as you look around the world, I mean, your clients are looking at cities like London, they're looking at Miami, they're looking at New York as well as looking at the Gulf. How would you weigh up London, say, versus Riyadh or Jeddah at the moment? You see, we believe that the savvy investor today will look at 50% in the new economies and the most attractive new economies are the GCC and 50% in the old economies, and this is what we are advising our investors to do. And would you sort of be able to sell London after hearing the Chancellor this morning? You see, at 17% stamp duty, you're trying to tax us to death. So we're hoping this will be relaxed, but again, as a developer, such actions unfortunately will reduce the prices in the market, will help us to come in and wait for the reversal of ideas on taxing the wealthy to death to build again. Now you partner with a lot of other brands like we mentioned, you partnered with Lamborghini in Spain, you partnered with the Trump family in various ways. Why do you partner and how do you decide? Uh, who you partner with and and and and make those choices. You see, we, we, we are a new company. We are a company that is 4.5 years old. We've done a lot in 4.5 years, including listing on the London Stock Exchange and recently getting into the ESCC category. When you launch in a new city, you need awareness, you need credibility. You either can build this over 4 to 5 years, or you can shorten that period by bringing a brand to help you. And one of the main reasons we did co-branding was to gain awareness and credibility very quickly. Mm And a brand like Trump, that's, you know, that that that's so global. You're you're going to drag me into politics now. I can tell you that I started working with the Trump Organization in 2012, 4 years before any politics, and we went after the luxury, the opulence, the credibility, that big stage, that great customer service. This was the main attraction for the Trump brand. So what, um, if we look forward 10 years, um, Do you think, how, how will the, the different cities in the Gulf look compared to America or, or, or far East Asia in terms of having paid off as investments? You see, We have almost Perfect formula. You have the investments in infrastructure, and when I say infrastructure, people think roads and uh sewage. No, we're talking schools, universities, uh, AI technology. Airports, airlines, connectivity. And a very important part of that infrastructure where the GCC today wins over so many of those legacy economies, which is personal safety and security, and I'm sure you told me you've been here for a while, you can feel that you can put on your, your, your best stuff and just walk in the street and you're not afraid, you're not afraid to send your children to school or to university. So personal safety is very important part of that infrastructure. Then we have the governance, which includes the tax policies. Then you have the lifestyle that is being created here. Add to that I know you come from the UK, maybe you wouldn't like this. The stability and the swiftness of action. This is the perfect formula. We still need some maybe cryptocurrency legislation which will help also, but we have almost a perfect formula. Alright, well, thank you very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.