SHANGHAI: Shanghai will accelerate efforts to cancel restrictions on foreign investment in the auto manufacturing sector, a government official said on Wednesday, a day after Tesla said it would build a wholly owned auto plant in the city.
Earlier this year, China said it would scrap foreign ownership caps for companies making fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2018 and all automotive ventures by 2022. The announcement marked a major policy shift in the world’s top car market that has capped foreign ownership in the sector at 50 percent for over two decades.
Huang Ou, deputy director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology, told reporters at a press conference that the city government was engaged in preparations to support the Tesla project, set to be Shanghai’s biggest foreign-invested project.
“The next step is for the city government to do the support work to allow the project to go into operation as quickly as possible,” he said.
“In line with state plans, we will speed up the cancelation of foreign ownership restrictions in the car manufacturing sector,” he said.
Huang declined to comment, however, on the size of the project or when the construction of a plant with capacity to produce 500,000 Tesla battery electric cars a year — large by auto industry standards — would start.
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk landed a deal on Tuesday to build a new and wholly owned auto plant in Shanghai, the company’s first factory outside the United States. It would double the size of the electric car maker’s global manufacturing.
The deal was announced as Tesla raised prices on US-made vehicles it sells in China to offset the cost of tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on US imports in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s heavier duties on Chinese goods.
An auto assembly plant half the size of the envisioned Tesla Shanghai plant would normally cost $1 billion to build, according to automotive industry officials and experts.
The Shanghai government said in a statement on Tuesday it welcomed Tesla’s move to invest not only in a new factory in the city but in research and development.
Chinese magazine Caijing, citing sources close to the project, reported on Tuesday that the plant’s exact location had not been decided and construction would start early next year.
After Tesla deal, Shanghai to speed up cancelation of foreign ownership limits
After Tesla deal, Shanghai to speed up cancelation of foreign ownership limits
MEA to see $3tn real estate, infrastructure pipeline by 2030, JLL says
RIYADH: The Middle East and Africa region is set to see a $3 trillion pipeline of real estate and infrastructure projects between 2026 and 2030, driven by tight occupancy levels and strong investor demand, an analysis showed.
In its latest report, professional services firm JLL said low vacancy and strong absorption rates are among the key drivers accelerating the sector’s transformation in the region, easing supply constraints and supporting rental and sales growth.
The steady momentum in the region’s real estate and infrastructure sectors underscores the ongoing economic diversification efforts pursued by countries across the region.
In July, real estate consultancy Knight Frank said the Kingdom’s construction output value is expected to reach $191 billion by 2029, representing a 29.05 percent increase from 2024, driven by residential development, ongoing giga-projects and rising demand for office space.
James Allan, CEO, UAE, Egypt and Africa at JLL, said: “Strong market fundamentals boosted the Middle East and Africa real estate market in 2025, setting the momentum for sustained performance across asset classes in 2026.”
He added: “We saw record residential transactions, double-digit growth in industrial and logistics rents, and an exceptionally tight 1 percent office vacancy rate in 2025, driven by professional talent migration, substantial private investment, and strategic infrastructure development.”
According to the report, the delivery of key infrastructure projects in the region will further catalyze new real estate developments and attract increased private sector participation.
In the evolving capital landscape, cross-border capital and alternative financing mechanisms are projected to play an increasingly central role, particularly in greenfield developments where investment stock remains limited.
The report added that improved market transparency across the region, driven by regulatory changes, is also expected to bolster investor confidence in the Middle East and Africa markets.
JLL said the UAE remains central to this growth trajectory, with projected project cash flows of $795 billion from 2026 to 2030, including $470 billion allocated to real estate development.
In November, CBRE echoed similar views on the region’s real estate sector, saying Saudi Arabia’s ongoing economic diversification push is energizing its property market, with office rents in Riyadh climbing 15 percent year on year and occupancy reaching 98 percent by the end of the third quarter of 2025.
CBRE added that the strong performance in Saudi Arabia’s office sector is buoyed by the Kingdom’s non-oil economic expansion and an influx of multinational companies relocating regional headquarters to Riyadh.
