By Sami Zaptia.
London, 10 February 2020:
Tadawul Real Estate Fund, a private sector fund, signed a memorandum of understanding with the state Inma Tourism Consultancy and Real Estate Holding company (part of the state multi-billion Economic and Social Development Fund) to implement a number of joint ventures in the Libyan real estate sector. The agreement was signed on the side lines of the Second Libyan Real Estate Development Forum held in Tunis 5-6 February.
The agreement came in response to the recommendations of the First Libyan Real Estate Development Forum held in Tunis in October 2018 in the context of strengthening the private public partnership in the sector. The agreement accepts the new reality of post Qaddafi Libya whereby the state contractually owns most of the huge multi-billion dollar stalled real estate projects – but has no finances to compete them. Including and allowing the private sector – the only sector capable of driving Libya’s economy forward in the long term – through its capital will also help release Libya’s economy.
The agreement is expected to contribute to the injection of hundreds of millions of dinars of private sector funds for real estate development.
Tadawul Real Estate Fund reports that it is licensed to issue investment certificates to companies and individuals worth a quarter of a billion Libyan dinars to be issued through Libya’s Stock Market to develop real estate projects outside the state budget.
Tadawul also reports that it is the first private fund to be licensed by the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Stock Exchange.
Commenting on the agreement, Naaman Elbouri, Board Member of Tadawul Real Estate, said that ‘‘The real estate sector in any developing country accounts for approximately 60-65% of GDP and the largest employer of manpower.
Today we can more than double Libya’s revenues from oil through real estate development. We just need urban plans, the reactivating the of the land registry, the activation of the Finance Leasing law and the repeal of (the Qaddafi era) Law No. 4 (where tenants became overnight owners) and the repeal of law of 1/2013.
Elbouri added that ‘‘There are 100 billion Libyan dinars sitting in Libyan banks and I have people looking for investment opportunities and they can contribute to the creation of an urban revolution in Libya. Investment comes through moving the wheel of the economy’’.
The Second Libyan Real Estate Development Forum – 5 to 6 February in Tunis
