The freehold boom in the Gulf has been a huge incentive and in early 2004 plans to develop The Wave, Muscat to attract investors began.

The Wave, Muscat, is being developed through a joint venture comprising Oman’s Waterfront Investments (representing the Government of the Sultanate of Oman), National Investment funds Company (representing the Omani Pension Funds), and the UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim Group.

The Wave, Muscat, represents an unprecedented venture between private enterprise and the Oman Government, a master-planned community that will occupy 2.5 million square metres along more than 6km of pristine beach. The best known industry consultants have been appointed and golf legend Greg Norman has put his name to the project to design Oman’s first links course - an 18-hole course spread over 800,000 square metres.

Residents of The Wave, Muscat apparently will enjoy a lifestyle that has not been experienced in Oman before. Townhouses will be complemented by villas with a choice of garden, waterfront or beach views, and the marina village will be home to spacious and stylishly appointed apartments. There will be a 300-berth marina and Fairmont and Kempinski are two of the world-class hotel chains already involved.

Vistas spoke to Nick Smith, Chief Executive Officer, The Wave, Muscat to find out the current status of this project.

How far The Wave has reached?

We started work onsite on April 2007 and the first lot is moving in next week. We have a number of houses finished, so we have roughly obtained the aim. We have about 650 properties under construction; we will probably occupy around 100 properties by the year end. The utilities like water and electricity need to be plugged in. From our perspective it is a very exciting time. It’s perhaps the first integrated tourism complex to have expatriates booked in and in fact, the first one to move in is a Dutch. However, there are Omanis, British, and Indians too, to move in the first lot.
In a couple of months two or three properties a day would be occupied. There  is facility management team which will help them settle. The villas will be occupied first and the town house will come later, as they need to be completed together and the underground parking also needs to be completed. If you have seen the design, the arms of the Marina, we hope to finish by end of 2009 or early 2010. A team of 100 people are directly reporting to the Wave.

Are there measures taken by The Wave Muscat to check such unforeseen calamities like a cylone or hurricane for instance?

Gonu that came in 2007, didn’t affect us as, our sites had proper drainage. We have already planned a great structure like a wall around marina which will stop a wave bigger than Gonu. If you remember there was flooding from wadis, we already have a channel which will take water out to the sea. These are some of the ways we plan to protect our projects from or any such calamity.

Do you have any plan in place to protect the environment?

We have some quiet interesting things that we progressing now in terms of say the type of heat resistant glass we are using in the houses to make sure that too much heat does not get in, and so one does not  have to turn on the air-conditioning  too much. We are looking at recycling the waste disposed. We have decided to introduce methods of saving marine life. We need to work with our environment consultants to try to encourage marine life. And also we have to encourage people to use water and electricity more efficiently. But there is lot more to do in terms of protecting the environment. We are living in a very hot climate of the world; we have to make sure that our energy consumption is maintained low.

How do you differentiate Oman Vis-à-vis other Gulf countries?

What is unique about Oman is that it has proper Ocean, a tidal sea, unlike other Gulf countries. There are places to go. It has lot of cultural things. It is packaged like cousin of Dubai, which remains a cosmopolitan tall city. This is in English we call a foil. It’s the opposite. I have always thought that the tourist who come here, should go to Dubai, have good time than again come here to chill out and enjoy the difference. I don’t see a competition with Dubai or any other place. The people who come to Oman, will come back again and have a different experience every time.
Oman needs to build on its culture and its natural things. We are not planning any high rise like Dubai. We want it vibrant and very lively. It’s calmer here. The future is very bright here, that’s the reason we have come here. Oman is considered the jewel of the Arabian Peninsula. The ministry of tourism is taking good initiatives. Our whole idea is to build a world class place and as such people should go back and recommend it to their friends.

How favourable are the government policies as far as real estate market is concerned. How is it different from other projects?

The government is our biggest share holder. The shareholders of The Wave are National Pension Fund and MAFI, so in that way every Omani has a stake in The Wave, and without their support The Wave wouldn’t have happened. The government supported by providing funds, the land and the infrastructure to make it happen. I think we are lucky, we got our starting best. Lot of other projects too very good sites. There is as such no competition. I think The Wave is the new hub of Muscat. We have our own unique selling point that we are in the city. Other projects are doing well. But if you want to be in the heart of the city, rather than being no where, The Wave is the place to be. The  Markaz Al Bhaja  and the Muscat City Centre shopping mall are close by,  Bank Muscat is moving its headquarters in the vicinity and  all the new commercial places are nearby. I think that’s what our investors and customers agree about. If you are working in the city, The Wave is nearest.

Are people buying properties from an investment point or actually planning to stay?

Well,  we are not quiet sure about it! We have got lot of investors; we have also got lot of people who want to live there. Because of the reason that they are paying huge moneys to their landlords, they want to own their houses and don’t have to pay to their land lords. The precise percentage of people I’m not sure. The second hand market where in people have changed hands with property is quiet strong. It will be quiet interesting to see how many landlords will occupy the properties. All we know is 50% of our buyers are Omani citizens, some 15% British, rest are people of other nationalities. So it is going to be very cosmopolitan.

How much is the price of these properties, how much it has appreciated since it started?

Last release the lowest price was OMR 118000 for one bedroom apartment. Most of them are between OMR two hundered to four hundred thousand.  Since we started the value has appreciated around 50%.

The next release will be sometime in next few months. I’m not quiet sure, it’s not fixed. Till now it was about showing everybody what we doing. But now it will be a real place. It will be slow start but several 100 people will start to live by next year.

Does the global meltdown have any affect on the real estate market?

Well we are not quiet sure about it, at this stage. We have to wait and see. However, we believe The Wave is currently the best place to be in the world. Our only concern is that international buyers might find difficulty in getting mortgage.