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AMF-IMF Joint Virtual Workshop on

“Measuring Commercial Property Price Indices in Arab Countries”

(1-2 June 2022)

Introduction

The AMF, in cooperation with the IMF, will organize a joint virtual workshop on "Measuring Commercial Property Price Indices in Arab countries", on 1 and 2 June 2022, under the umbrella of the Arab Statistics Initiative (Arabstat).

The real estate assets price indices computed in most Arab countries focuses mainly on residential real estate only. Consequently, the indices don’t include all real estate asset segments, including commercial and land assets, except in some Arab Countries like Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. In addition, the "commercial real estate assets" is not an independent category among the types of assets within the main categories of the real estate asset price indices.

Methodologies applied in measuring real estate assets price indices differ in Arab countries due to the different nature of the real estate market from one country to another and data availability on real estate transactions. Meanwhile, in each country, the same methodology is applied for all types of real estate assets in computing the price index. It is compiled for commercial, residential, and land assets.

International experiences indicate the importance of having an index to measure the prices of commercial real estate assets, along with the price index of residential real estate, for their role in predicting economic cycles, monitoring asset bubbles, and assessing systemic risks, and thus providing guidelines for the use of appropriate monetary and macroprudential tools to ensure price and financial stability. Calculating such indicators also contributes to enhancing credit risk management in the banking sector when granting real estate loans.

The proposed joint workshop will be an occasion to highlight the specificities of measuring the commercial real estate assets price indices, sharing experiences between Arab countries, addressing challenges of measurement, data availability, and issues on the methodologies used in compiling the indices.

Program

First day: Wednesday, 1^st June 2022 (Abu Dhabi Time)

Conceptual Framework and Methodologies)

Second day: Thursday, 2^nd June 2022 (Abu Dhabi Time)

(Regional and International Experiences)