The Summit programme this year revolved around four themes: shaping the energy transition; infratech and project delivery disruption; supply chain, talent, and workforce; and net-zero infrastructure investing.

The event included a collection of presentations for improving capital productivity, building new clean-energy assets and hyper-scaling the growth potential of key technologies. The discussions explored various dimensions including the need for new types of infrastructure and capital projects, meeting the demands of future cities as well as realising green infrastructure.

The discussion on ‘How the role of the infrastructure CEO is changing’, adeptly explored the challenges that CEOs face and the range of leadership qualities and capabilities they need in today's environment. 

Looking at how AI is changing buildings and real estate through productivity improvements and accelerating project delivery, an interactive plenary session addressed questions including how far can and should we take the application of AI and how owners and suppliers can capture potential benefits while managing risk?

A panel moderated by Rajat Gupta, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company discussed ‘How do we retrofit the world?’ Retrofitting brownfield housing, transport, water and energy infrastructure can help lay the groundwork for climate-resilient, and future-ready cities. Ronan O’Dowd, Co-Head of Commercial Real Estate, Standard Chartered Bank commented, “Property as an asset class represents a clear case for retrofit and it’s a matter of time when it will be retrofitted.” 

In response to a question on what will be the big win for retrofit in the near future, Jurgen Fischer, President, Danfoss Climate Solutions, pointed out the urgent need to calculate the cost of emissions.

The panelists explored other aspects such as how retrofitting enables more efficient operations and maintenance as well as the emerging technologies or materials that will play a key role.

An inspiring idea on Biodiversity redefining sustainability in real estate and infrastructure. was presented by Camille Goldstone-Henry, CEO & co-Founder, Xylo Systems, a tech platform for companies to measure and manage carbon footprint. Through a variety of examples, she conveyed a strong message to embrace the innovations at the intersection of nature and technology. 

At the 9th Global Infrastructure Initiative Summit, Fyna Ashwath spoke to Samvit Kanoria, Senior Partner Dubai and Regional Leader of Real Estate on the themes that are central to the real estate industry today as well as the prominent highlights of the industry in Qatar and the UAE.

In your view, what themes are central to the real estate landscape today?

Digital analytics, especially digitising things that we have so far considered hard, is one of the major themes today. For example, the digital journey involved in home sales from search through the sale.

A series of analytics and use cases are now available and are now able to predict using various sources of data. For example, on the construction side, using these data sources can help predict project delivery timelines and costs.

ESG is the second major theme that is highly discussed today, and we are seeing that the region is quite committed to it. Now, the real question is how to make it happen and what is needed to scale it to convert the vision to reality.

Another important aspect is the investments and funding collaborations that are taking place. Successfully scaling the delivery of capital expenditure will entail controlling cost and time budgets. Industry players are rethinking how they approach projects to deliver them faster, cheaper and more efficiently than ever. And, amidst all this they are also thinking about the modern means of partnering with the private sector.

As an expert on Qatar real estate, how, in your opinion, is the industry progressing in the country, especially after the FIFA World Cup?

Qatar made a significant investment in the building up of transportation-based infrastructure during the lead up to the FIFA World Cup event. And, a lot of the real estate — across all asset classes —- has been built at a high quality standard.

I would call it an activation strategy as opposed to a building strategy that the country is adopting. The recent announcement of the setting up of a real estate regulatory authority points towards a nuanced view on development of the sector and the measures it is taking towards providing transparency and clarity of information, encouraging investment and resolving disputes.

On the tourism side, Qatar has been seeing significant positive movement especially due to various events that are happening and that is sure to impact the real estate sector, too.

What kind of push are you seeing in the Middle East region, as a whole, on retrofits?

While retrofits are very important and will continue to be, the region is innovating on the development side, too. In the ESG domain specifically, working on embodied carbon is much more complicated — and these are the problems the region is working on addressing.

On retrofits specifically, we will continue to see many startups working in this space and there are several vibrant conversations happening in the region in aspects such as energy monitoring systems in buildings and others.

What are the characteristics that stand out in the UAE real estate market?

The UAE is incredibly customer-focused, thoughtful about understanding preferences of consumers. and resolving basic human needs, As a result we have seen several lifestyle options offered and the country has put a lot of thought into catering to the needs of different nationalities, price points, segments etc.