Greek-Australian developer, George Kostas, has left his job as Brookfield’s head of Australian construction, being there since 2009, in order to run one of the biggest shopping center developers in Dubai.
In spite of a prolonged battle given by two Australians to defend bribery and corruption claims through the Dubai courts, his appointment as the chief executive of MAF Property came and thus showed that Australians can still take real estate jobs in the Middle Eastern city, as the Australian newspaper reported.
Kostas will run the Al-Futtaim’s subsidiary, one of the biggest privately owned companies in Dubai with three separate operations covering the Middle East and North Africa.
One of its 12 large shopping centers, the iconic Mall of the Emirates, incorporates a ski-field resort. Moreover, 13 hotels and three large mixed-use developments are also part of its property portfolio. As Kostas stated, the company booked about $600m of net profit annually.
According to Kostas, the fundamentals of Dubai’s property market are much stronger than in Europe or the US, but Western companies had avoided the Eastern city, as it was not easy for international developers to buy and own land while adding that groups would have to take it more seriously as it prospered, the Australian reported.
Much of the property overhung in Dubai from the GFC had gone, according to Kostas
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