Qatar's Barwa sells Financial District for $3bn

Barwa Real Estate, the Middle East’s biggest property company by assets, has sold the Barwa Financial District to Qatar Petroleum for QR11bn ($3bn), the developer said on Wednesday. Barwa plans to complete the project and hand it over to the state-owned energy company by 2015, Barwa said in a statement. Company chairman Hitmi Ali al-Hitmi later disclosed the sale price in comments to reporters in the Qatari capital, Doha, Bloomberg reported. The transaction comes amid a slump in the Gulf state’s property market. Rents were the only part of the emirate’s economy to show a price decrease in November, falling 5.7 percent from a year ago, the Qatar Statistics Agency said yesterday. The Barwa Financial District consists of 10 towers, which have an average of 21 to 36 floors and occupy a prominent position in Doha's West Bay area. Its centrepiece is its 50-storey high-rise tower, which is set to become one of Doha's landmarks as well as an icon of the city's skyline. The Barwa Financial District is also expected to be among the first to be certified as a sustainably designed development project in the Middle East. Barwa's other flagship projects include Barwa Commercial Avenue, Barwa Al Sadd, Barwa Village, Barwa Al Khor, Masaken Al Sailiyah and Musaimeer.