meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

The changing face of community

11 December 2023

Swiss-Egyptian property group Orascom Development Holding has been on a transformative journey over the past three years in response to global pressures on its core markets and areas of activity.

Operating in seven countries – Egypt, Morocco, Oman, the UAE, Montenegro, Switzerland and the UK – the group develops mixed-use communities that combine residential units with social infrastructure and amenities – and, more recently, commercial office space.

It also owns 33 hotels with a total of 7,000 keys that it either self-manages or allows a third party to manage, and holds a landbank of 100 million square metres across the seven countries, of which two-thirds is yet to be developed.

Orascom Development’s model revolves around developing out-of-town locations that provide a sense of departure from urban life while remaining within reach of major cities.

Historically, much of this was keyed into second home ownership, but more recently, and particularly with the Covid-19 pandemic, shifting global attitudes to work and travel have driven the group to reorient itself to new realities.

Group CEO Omar El Hamamsy notes that at the height of the pandemic, the black swan event resulted in diverging effects on the group’s hotel and real estate businesses. While travel restrictions led to a downturn in its hotel business, the real estate business experienced an unexpected surge in demand.

Much of this surge was driven by people seeking an escape from urban environments, which boosted the appeal of the group’s lifestyle-oriented out-of-town developments. Consumer mindsets also shifted from viewing such properties as second homes to viewing them as prospective primary residences.

As El Hamamsy explains: “The purpose of those towns historically was for them to be second homes. Over time, that model has morphed into: ‘Well, hey, especially after the pandemic, should these places and towns be your primary home in the first place? Why wouldn’t you live in the Swiss Alps, an hour and a half away from Zurich, or an hour or two hours away from Milan, if you can do that?’”

This shift has created demand for commercial space within existing communities, such as at El Gouna (pictured below), the community established by the group on Egypt’s Red Sea coast near Hurghada in the ’90s.

This has led, notes El Hamamsy, into “the creation of co-working spaces – so in El Gouna, we have something called G Valley, which is our little Silicon Valley, to which we’ve attracted a whole bunch of startups. Now a bunch of digital nomads startups come in and they use those co-working spaces.”

Divesting peripherals

The group is also pivoting towards leaner operations and away from the development model it followed in the past, in which it ran everything from utilities and infrastructure to services and amenities such as schools, hospitals, marinas and leisure facilities, including even one ski resort.

El Hamamsy notes the group’s need to stay focused on its core competencies and profit centres and to disentangle itself from operational aspects. 

“As part of our growth strategy, we recognise the need to transition from owning and operating everything,” he says. “This move is geared towards achieving profitable growth, enhancing customer experiences, and unlocking the stored value in our assets.

“The model over the past 30 years was incredibly capital intensive – putting a lot of money into cement and steel, into pipes underground, into schools and hospitals – so at some point, we needed to become more asset-light.

“The next step, and the one we’re doing now, is actually returning dividends to our shareholders through some de-assetisation – unlocking some of that stored value and returning it.”

In the past three years, the group’s strategic realignment has led it to post 2022 revenues that were 77 per cent higher than in 2020 and 52 per cent higher than the 2019 baseline.

Gross profit then nearly tripled from 2020 to 2022, while a 10-year net profit loss has become a two-year winning streak in 2021 and 2022, according to El Hamamsy.

There are positive projections for profitability in 2023, too.

Optimising integration

Moving forward, while all of the group’s communities are still being developed with a similar furnishing of facilities as before, a key difference is that operational partners are being brought on board from the beginning – convinced by the group’s now multinational, multi-decade track record of development.

One community under active development along these new lines is O West, a masterplan in Egypt’s 6th October City, about 40 minutes west of Cairo’s downtown.

Here, as El Hamamsy notes: “Now we’re at the maturity level where we can get out of owning and operating everything. We don’t need to generate our own electricity or do our own landscaping, necessarily. We don’t need to operate schools. In O West, we have brought in three operators for the schools, and that’s working great for us.

“And in the extension of our hospitals and wellbeing experiences, we’re bringing in third parties who specialise in certain types of wellbeing to actually build their own infrastructure and operate their own infrastructure.

“Our role, ultimately, is to curate, just like a museum curator – to say: this is the right experience for that community at this point in time.”

The group’s communities are also being designed to accommodate a broad demographic, including by incorporating affordable housing into their masterplans to ensure the entire working population can live there.

El Hamamsy emphasises the distinction between the group’s holistic approach and that of other residential developments, which – while integrating a range of different facilities and spaces – often lack functionality as fully-fledged communities.

Orascom Development’s level of community integration, on the other hand, even extends to its ownership of the El Gouna Football Club, which now sits in the Egyptian Premier League, based out of its El Gouna development.

It similarly owns an ice hockey team in connection with its community in Andermatt, Switzerland.

The group also undergirds sports and cultural events, such as the Ironman 70.3 Salalah, which centres on its Hawana Salalah community, and the El Gouna Film Festival.

And the communities keep coming. In 2022, Orascom Development welcomed residents into its first community in the UK – a lakeside village in Cornwall, while the first phase of O West in Cairo was delivered in 2023.

Despite the inflationary pressure in Egypt, the real estate market remains vibrant, according to El Hamamsy, who notes: “The opportunities in Egypt, given its low asset prices post-devaluation and favourable demographics, make it an appealing prospect for serious investors.”

Looking ahead, Orascom Development is also in the early stages of developing a major new community in Chbika in southwestern Morocco, and at Al-Sawda Island, off the southern coast of Oman – both just parts of the huge land bank that the group is yet to develop into its singular vision of urban planning.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/11358551/main.gif
John Bambridge

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Miral commits $3.2bn Yas Island investments

    14 September 2026

    Abu Dhabi’s Miral has announced plans to invest over AED12bn ($3.2bn) in Yas Island over the next five years.

    According to a statement, the investment will fund a pipeline of new projects, as well as expansions and enhancements to existing attractions, supporting Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Strategy 2030.

    The next phase of development will focus on expanding Yas Island’s theme parks and attractions, while introducing new immersive rides and experiences that reflect changing visitor expectations.

    The investment will also strengthen the island’s hospitality offering through additional hotel rooms and enhancements to its overall accommodation portfolio.

    The investment is separate from the previously announced Disney project. 

    Miral recently started the expansion works of its Harry Potter-themed expansion at the Warner Bros World Yas Island entertainment destination in Abu Dhabi.

    The scope of the Warner Bros World phase two expansion includes adding 63,000 square metres (sq m) to the existing theme park.

    This will include a Harry Potter-themed zone with three new rides called Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle and The Forbidden Forest, along with retail outlets and food and beverage facilities.

    Yas Waterworld

    Miral has developed a series of theme parks and other entertainment-related attractions on Yas Island, working with several local and international contractors.

    In July last year, Miral opened a new 16,900 sq m expansion of its Yas Waterworld park to the public.

    The expansion added 3.3 kilometres of slide sections to the park. The addition of 18 new rides and attractions, bringing the total number of rides to more than 60, is expected to increase visitor capacity by 20%.

    Construction was carried out by local contractor Alec.

    Disney park

    The Walt Disney Company and Miral signed an agreement in May to build a Disney theme park resort on Yas Island.

    Disney, which is based in the US, said the Abu Dhabi site will be its seventh theme park resort. The others are in California and Florida in the US, Paris in France, Hong Kong and Shanghai in China, and Tokyo in Japan.

    In a statement, Disney noted that the UAE is located within a four-hour flight of one-third of the world’s population, making it a significant gateway for tourism. It is also home to one of the world’s busiest airline hubs, with 120 million passengers travelling through Abu Dhabi and Dubai each year.

    The Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi will include entertainment areas, themed accommodations, dining venues and retail experiences.

    In 2023, Miral opened SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, also on Yas Island. Alec was the contractor for the estimated $565m project.

    In 2018, Miral opened the Warner Bros theme park on Yas Island. Belgium’s Besix was the contractor for the estimated $531m project.

    Other Miral projects have included the Etihad Arena and the indoor climbing and skydive centre Clymb. Bam International of the Netherlands was the contractor for the arena and Germany’s Zublin was the contractor for Clymb.

    Yas Island was launched as a project in 2006 by local developer Aldar Properties. The original centrepiece attractions were the Yas Marina Circuit, which hosts Formula 1 motor racing’s annual Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the Ferrari World theme park.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19645816/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Contractors prepare bids for Oxagon wastewater plant

    14 September 2026

     

    Contractors are preparing to submit bids to build a wastewater treatment plant for Oxagon, Neom’s industrial cluster.

    The industrial wastewater treatment package will have an initial capacity of 35,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), supplied in modular trains of 5,000 cm/d each. A separate sanitary wastewater treatment package will have a capacity of 1,000 cm/d.

    The contract is structured as a design-build-operate project and covers the supply, installation and commissioning of industrial and sanitary wastewater treatment packages, as well as three years of operation and maintenance.

    Bids are due on 2 October, a source close to the project told MEED.

    It is understood that Neom’s water utility Enowa issued the request for proposals earlier this year. The plant is designed to provide “interim wastewater treatment” capacity for Neom’s Oxagon Industrial Quarter as industrial development in the area progresses.

    Enowa has described the treatment systems as interim and de-mountable, allowing them to be installed and subsequently removed or relocated as requirements at Oxagon develop. The plant can be expanded to a maximum of 45,000 cm/d.

    The tender documents also state that Neom may consider export credit agency (ECA) financing for the project, with the strength of bidders’ ECA financing proposals forming part of the commercial evaluation.

    The project follows an earlier tender for the Oxagon Village Water Recycling Plant, which was cancelled despite contractors submitting bids in 2024.

    MEED reported at the time that Beijing-based PowerChina, the local Alfanar Company and Cairo-headquartered Orascom had submitted bids for the project. It is understood that these firms are also likely to participate in the latest tender.

    The earlier scheme included truck receiving facilities, pretreatment, biological treatment using food chain reactor technology, tertiary treatment, sludge handling and recycled-water storage.

    The latest procurement appears to represent a reworked approach to wastewater treatment at Oxagon Industrial Quarter, with the previous engineering, procurement and construction scheme replaced by an interim, modular and de-mountable facility.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19640903/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Saudi Arabia shuts East-West oil pipeline after drone strikes

    14 September 2026

    Saudi Arabia has temporarily closed its 1,200-kilometre East-West pipeline after it was targeted by multiple drones launched from Iraq, disrupting one of the kingdom’s most critical energy export routes and threatening global oil supplies already strained by conflict across the region.

    The Ministry of Energy said the pipeline, which connects the Abqaiq oil field in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, was hit in the Riyadh and Medina regions on 12 September. Specialised teams have begun securing the facility and assessing damage. A Foreign Ministry statement said the attack resulted in injuries and “some damage that is currently being addressed”.

    The closure removes about 4 million barrels a day from the global market, representing 4% of world oil supply. The pipeline’s role has become increasingly critical since the US-Iran conflict forced a near-complete shutdown of flows through the Strait of Hormuz in March.

    Saudi Arabia has been using the East-West route to bypass the chokepoint, but the assault has left the kingdom dependent on substantially reduced Hormuz exports and Red Sea shipping routes now threatened by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi’s office confirmed the drone strike on the East-West Pipeline originated in the Maysan province, which borders Iran. The government formally condemned the attack, announced an investigation into the Maysan operations command and dismissed its commander. No armed group has claimed responsibility, but security analysts attribute the strike to Iran-backed militias operating from Iraqi territory.

    Riyadh said it was not retaliating “at this stage”, choosing instead to support Iraqi efforts to prevent further strikes from its territory. 

    The attack comes amid wider regional upheaval. Houthi forces have rapidly advanced along Yemen’s coast, seizing the strategic Mokha port and the Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea, moving closer to the Bab El-Mandab strait. Saudi authorities said the group simultaneously launched dozens of drones and missiles at the southern kingdom on 11 September, striking civilian and economic targets and injuring 73 people.

    Oil analysts and traders reported that Yanbu’s storage capacity, estimated at around 35 million barrels, now holds supplies sufficient for only five to seven days of exports without pipeline operations. Storage facilities at Egypt’s Ain Sokhna and Sidi Kerir ports have similar constraints. Repair timelines remain uncertain, with sources citing estimates ranging from days to five or six weeks.

    The dual disruption of both the pipeline and Red Sea shipping has compressed global energy supplies. Energy analysts warned that without pipeline repairs, oil prices could return to the $120-a-barrel peak reached earlier in the regional conflict.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19641513/main.gif
    Colin Foreman
  • WSP wins Dammam airport expansion design works

    14 September 2026

    WSP Middle East, the regional arm of Canadian engineering firm WSP, has won a design contract to expand King Fahd International airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

    Dammam Airports Company (DACO) awarded the contract.

    The scope includes designing passenger terminal expansions, facility upgrades, and improvements to airport entrances and access roads.

    It also covers the development of baggage-handling systems, digital services and other associated infrastructure.

    The expansion works will be carried out in line with the airport’s approved masterplan, which targets serving more than 19 million passengers a year by 2030.

    The plan also aims to increase air cargo capacity to more than 600,000 tonnes a year and raise aircraft operational capacity to 77 movements per hour, supported by comprehensive expansions to infrastructure, runways and general aviation facilities.

    This contract forms part of DACO’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the airport ecosystem, enhance operational efficiency, and support the Aviation Programme and Saudi Vision 2030 objectives.

    King Fahd International airport is the kingdom’s third-largest airport by annual passenger traffic, behind Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International and Riyadh’s King Khaled International.

    DACO was formed in July 2017 to manage, operate and develop King Fahd International airport in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

    It was established as part of the broader Saudi Vision 2030 privatisation and economic reform programme to corporatise the aviation sector, increase operational efficiency, upgrade infrastructure, and transition state-run airports into commercially viable, world-class regional aviation hubs.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19639910/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Dubai seeks contractors for multibillion-dollar road scheme

    14 September 2026

     

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) is seeking contractors to design and build a multibillion-dollar new road that will run parallel to Sheikh Zayed Road.

    MEED understands that the scope covers the construction of about 30 kilometres (km) of works.

    These include about 15km of viaduct along First Al-Khail Street and more than 14.5km of bridge ramps, along with other associated infrastructure works.

    The RTA floated the expression of interest notice to contractors in early September, with a submission deadline of 10 October.

    The project is another significant initiative aimed at alleviating pressure on the existing Sheikh Zayed Road section from Hadiqa Street to Hessa Street.

    Dubai has previously explored bold concepts to expand capacity on Sheikh Zayed Road, including proposals to introduce double-decker sections to add extra lanes without widening the existing corridor.

    The idea was discussed in the context of rising congestion and limited right-of-way along one of the city’s busiest arterial roads, with elevated decks potentially carrying through-traffic while the existing at-grade lanes served local access.

    The plans ultimately progressed as standalone schemes, with subsequent efforts focusing instead on corridor-wide upgrades, interchange improvements and complementary public transport expansions to manage demand more sustainably.

    The latest project aligns with Dubai’s continued investment in upgrading and expanding its road network to keep pace with rapid population growth and rising commuting demand.

    Planning for growth

    Dubai launched the 2040 Urban Master Plan in March 2021, referencing studies indicating that the emirate’s population will reach 5.8 million by 2040, up from 3.3 million in 2020. The daytime population is set to increase from 4.5 million in 2020 to 7.8 million in 2040.

    In December 2022, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved the 20-Minute City Policy as part of the second phase of the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. 

    In addition to the road projects, the RTA’s Dubai Metro Blue Line extension and Dubai Metro Gold Line form part of Dubai’s plans to improve residents’ quality of life by cutting journey times, as outlined in the policy.

    The policy aims for residents to have 80% of their daily requirements within a 20-minute journey, on foot or by bicycle. This goal will be achieved by developing integrated service centres with all necessary facilities and increasing population density around mass transit stations.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/19639621/main.gif
    Yasir Iqbal