The news that rents are continuing to fall in Abu Dhabi as more property comes online would come as a surprise to few in the capital.

While construction appeared to slow down during the summer, the completion of the flagship project on Sowwah Island, the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, the long-awaited Salam Street and the Sorouh's Sun and Sky Towers certainly seems to have got the ball rolling again.

But falling rents are always a double-edged sword. While it bodes well for residents — who for years have had to pay over the odds for sub-standard housing — concerns over a second global economic recession have constrained demand in the third quarter of 2011, causing worry among developers who have projects almost ready to come online.

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Rents in the capital will soon be guided by an index providing information about the true rental value of properties, a senior municipal official said in the capital yesterday.

The index will determine the rental value of a unit based on indicators like location, number of bedrooms and how old it is, Ali Al Hashemi, manager of Tawtheeq at the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, told Gulf News.

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Education's role as a catalyst in deepening the sense of national identity among the youth was the dominant theme of the second session of the Dubai Partnership Agenda (DPA), a strategic government initiative to facilitate collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Heads of various organisations and public and private stakeholders in the education sector discussed the challenges at hand and the role that education can play in preserving national identity and thus furthering development goals.

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Saudi Arabia’s banks recorded a whopping 37.5 per cent increase in their net earnings in the third quarter of 2011 as they benefited from a surge in public spending and government contracts awarded in the first half.

The combined net profits of the Gulf kingdom’s 12 commercial bank stood at nearly SReight billion in the third quarter and the income is projected to remain high through the year, Saudi Arabia’s largest bank said.

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Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank (NCB), the country's biggest bank by assets, posted a 87 per cent rise in its third-quarter net profit, the lender said on Wednesday.

State-owned NCB made a net profit of 1.5 billion riyals ($412m) in the three months to end September, compared with 828m riyals in the same period a year earlier.

The unlisted lender's assets grew by 13 per cent to 307 billion riyals from 271bn riyals at the end of the same period last year, it said.

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Abu Dhabi’s real GDP could rocket above Dh1.5 trillion in 2030 while the non-oil sector will leap to nearly Dh976 billion to maintain its share of more than half the overall economy, according to government data.

The GDP in 2030 will be more than five times its level of Dh285bn in 2005 and nearly triple the 2010 GDP of Dh517bn, showed the figures by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (DED).

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The UAE maintained its position as having the largest banking sector in the Arab world for the third consecutive year while the country’s Emirates NBD emerged as the top bank in the region, according to banking data. At the end of the first half of 2011, the UAE controlled just over 18 per cent of the combined assets of the nearly 470 banks grouped in the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) and around 28 per cent of their capital.

Figures by the Beirut-based UAB showed the UAE, the second largest Arab economy, also had the highest deposits and credit level in the region’s banking sector after it overtook Saudi Arabia three years ago.

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Property owners and investors in stalled projects across Dubai can approach the Dubai Land Department to seek inclusion of their project under the Tanmia initiative, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

“Investors or property owners of stalled projects can come to us. We will look at their petition after taking into account all the technical and legal details,” said Majida Ali Rashed, Senior Counsel Strategy, DLD.

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A major property deal – over a billion dirhams - has been struck in Ajman, according to a statement posted on the Plus Stock Exchange in London by one of the parties involved.

Dubai-based Bonyan International Investment Group has sold 67 out of 109 plots in its Dh3.5-billion Eye of Ajman project to Prime Investments International Group Limited.

The information was disclosed by Prime, a Cayman Island-incorporated company, in statements posted on the Plus Stock Exchange in London.

The purchase price of $396 million (Dh1.4bn) for the 67 plots has been settled in full by allotment of shares in Prime, it said.

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