LONDON: A splurge on marketing spending failed to deliver a bottom line boost to Damac Properties — the developer behind behind the only Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East.
The Dubai-based developer is well known for its marketing gimmicks such as including speed boats and sports cars with the homes it sells and often has a large presence of salespeople at events like the annual Cityscape shows in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
But the developer’s latest marketing drive comes amid a subdued property market in the emirate where it faces stiff competition from rivals developing thousands of new units.
On Wednesday Damac reported its third quarterly decline in profits on the trot, reflecting the headwinds facing the wider property market.
Third-quarter profit fell 20 percent to 719.34 million dirhams ($195.86 million) from a year earlier even as the developer ramped up marketing expenses by a third to 96.45 million
dirhams.
Despite the decline, Damac Chairman Hussain Sajwani gave an upbeat assessment of the market.
“Dubai’s property market has been steadily solidifying in 2017, with increasing sales transactions and robust fundamentals, and our medium to long term outlook remains positive,” he said.
“Dubai’s property sector is feeling the positive effects of the emirate’s appeal and growing sophistication on the world stage. This is evident from the growing real estate sales transactions at Dubai Land Department and we are confident of the growth prospects for the sector going forward.”
But that view does not chime with many brokers concerned about the potential over-supply of new homes hitting the
market.
Property broker JLL estimates that as many as 80,0000 units could be delivered by the end of 2019 with developers including Nakheel and Deyaar, which also reported earnings yesterday, announcing new projects worth billions of dollars in recent months.
“This renewed sentiment does however raise the prospect of a potential over supply on the back of sales achieved through more attractive payment terms,” said Craig Plumb, the regional head of research at JLL.
US President Donald Trump’s eldest sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump visited Dubai in February for the opening of the Trump International Gulf Club.
The developer announced a tie-up with the Roberto Cavalli Group in the third quarter for a villa development called Just Cavalli.
The developer also handed over more than 850 units across its international developments which include its two-tower Esclusiva project in Saudi Arabia and its three-tower development project in Jordan.
Damac advert spend surges but profits fall
Damac advert spend surges but profits fall
GCC banks post record $16.6bn profit in Q3 on lending, revenue growth
RIYADH: Gulf Cooperation Council banks posted a record $16.6 billion in net profit in the third quarter of 2025, an 11.6 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to an analysis., an analysis showed.
Net profit at listed GCC banks also rose 2.2 percent from the previous quarter, marking the third consecutive quarterly increase, driven by broad-based revenue growth and improved cost efficiency, according to Kuwait-based Kamco Invest.
The performance aligns with a projection made by accounting firm Ernst & Young in March, which said the GCC banking sector was poised for robust growth in 2025, supported by ongoing economic diversification and favorable global financial conditions.
In its latest report, Kamco stated: “The sequential increase (of net profit) was once again mainly led by a broad-based increase in revenues for the sector and lower cost-to-income ratio that more than offset an increase in impairments during the quarter.”
It added: “Loan impairments once again witnessed a double-digit increase, reaching a three-quarter high level of $2.6 billion during the third quarter of 2025 vs $2.4 billion during the second quarter of this year.”
Aggregate banking sector revenues reached a new record high of $36.8 billion during the quarter, registering a three-quarter high sequential growth of 3.3 percent, according to Kamco Invest.
Qatari banks recorded the strongest sequential revenue growth at 5.9 percent in the third quarter, compared to the previous three months.
Bahrain-listed banks followed with revenue growth of 5 percent, while UAE-listed banks posted an expansion of 3.4 percent.
Kuwaiti and Saudi-listed banks were next, with revenue growth of 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
Lending activity among listed GCC banks rose by 3.7 percent in the third quarter, one of the strongest increases in more than four years, bringing net loans to $2.31 trillion by the end of September.
“The growth (in lending) reflected resilient non-oil sector growth in the region with non-oil manufacturing consistently well above the growth mark for key economies in the region,” said Kamco Invest.
Gross loans increased by 3.6 percent during the quarter to $2.41 trillion.
The aggregate net loan-to-deposit ratio for the GCC banking sector remained elevated above 80 percent at the end of the third quarter, reaching a record high of 82.8 percent.
Saudi banks posted a record loan-to-deposit ratio of 97.6 percent in the third quarter, up 330 basis points from the previous quarter, driven by higher lending and a decline in customer deposits.
Qatari banks followed with a loan-to-deposit ratio of 91 percent in the third quarter, up from 90.3 percent in the previous three months.
UAE-listed banks recorded an increase in the loan-to-deposit ratio for the second consecutive quarter after a decline in the first quarter. The aggregate ratio for the UAE banking sector stood at 69.4 percent — one of its highest levels, but still the lowest in the GCC.
