Are Real Estate Developers Missing Out on Fujairah?

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is Mira Business FM, it's the Morning Drive. Question for you, why are developers ignoring Fujira? That's what we're going to talk about. Ajay Menon is back in the studio, More Real Estate. Ajay is the CEO of Luxe Vista Real Estate in Dubai. Nice to see you.

**Ajay Menon** (0:17)
Nice to see you too, good morning.

**Tim Elliott** (0:18)
So Fujira today, Ajay, most people know about the shiny skyscrapers. They're aware of the business and tourism hub that we are in here in Dubai.
All they know about Abu Dhabi is the financial hub, the cultural hub. There's a shift happening, I think, on the UAE's East Coast, a place where traditionally things move at a slightly gentler pace. Fujira is a great weekend getaway from the pace and the pressure of life in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. That's, I would contend, first of all, that's my first point to you. It's lovely.

**Ajay Menon** (0:53)
It used to be, but I'm very surprised that it is so underappreciated.

**Tim Elliott** (0:59)
I think you're right. You know, I first went there when I was a child. My father did a job in Fujira as an engineer.
That would be 1980 I went for one summer and they were building a seawall along the seafront there. It was quaint, a seaside place. It's changed a bit now though, of course.

**Ajay Menon** (1:19)
In my previous career, Fujira was the place.
I was a commodity trader. I was a marine fuels trader. So Fujira was the hub. I mean, it's still the hub.

**Tim Elliott** (1:27)
I knew you'd done something else apart from this real estate game. No, I mean, it really was, but it's right back in the forefront at the moment for some fairly obvious reasons, in terms of the conflict backdrop, if you like. In the world of shipping, and I guess bunkering as well, Fujira holds a pretty important position in the Emirates, and to be fair, probably regionally, I think that's an important position. So we could see potentially a major real estate story here.

**Ajay Menon** (1:57)
That is correct, especially DP World just announced that they're going to create a new multipurpose port to expand the container handling. This is to get the cargo directly on the Gulf of Oman, instead of entirely relying on Jabal Ali port which is inside the Strait of Hormuz. Definitely, it's a wider national strategy for limiting geopolitical risk like what we've seen now.
But what was Fujairah before? Fujairah was always a bunkering hub. Bunkering means refueling of ships. So when the ships are being refueled, there's a lot of crew change, there's a lot of things that happen. So Fujairah for shipping, it's very important. And it's not just the regional bunkering hub, it is number two in the entire world, Singapore comes first, number two is Fujairah, number three is Antwerp, Rotterdam.

**Tim Elliott** (2:53)
I didn't realize that.

**Ajay Menon** (2:55)
So it is very important. And what used to happen is, now we've seen Fujairah getting more and more prominence. The first Etihad Rail was from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah. Now Adnoc will also have a Hapsan-Fujairah oil pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
So now you get the drift, how Fujairah is... So this is exactly how Jabal Ali Port was evolved over the repeat.

**Tim Elliott** (3:21)
Yeah, I'm joining the dots. I was going to make the point, actually, Fujairah is well served by Etihad Rail from the outset.
So the big picture as to why the UAE is making this kind of major push towards the Gulf of Oman, if you like, is a great deal to do with the Indian Ocean, really. It's a great deal to do with what we've seen over the last four months or so.

**Ajay Menon** (3:43)
That is correct. So that means the government is focusing on that particular area. So what follows? So if and when the DP World port starts getting operational, thousands of jobs will be created in the shipping, logistics, and warehousing, that kind of jobs. So then government is already putting the money in. Industrial parks and warehousing will come up.
Population will grow. Residential communities. And then obviously the retail and whatever is needed to serve that particular crowd.
So it's a normal push towards a much bigger economy happening later in the future.

**Tim Elliott** (4:28)
Okay. So I mean, right now, at this point, Jibileli is still kind of the king. That's not in dispute, of course. But Fujairah holds some cards, doesn't it? The region's largest bunkering hub. Second biggest, I didn't realize the second biggest on earth.
It hosts Adnoc's oil bypass pipeline. Etihad Rail has connected it westwards. How quickly can this East Coast gateway actually transform from an oil and bunkering port into a container hub? A major container hub.