The IREF conference series now in it's sixth year prides itself on bringing to you the most current real estate issues affecting both conventional and islamic finance circles. Leading institutions and influential market players have over the years addressed important issues, identified exciting opportunities and forged new business relationships at IREF.

Against the backdrop of the current global economic turmoil, IREF 2008 has assumed even greater importance as it is set to explore new avenues, and highlight the potential opportunities that exist between the GCC and key Western markets such as the UK. Clearly GCC investors armed with huge reservoirs of petrodollar liquidity can benefit not just from the abundance of opportunities currently available but also from expertise, knowledge transfer, and mutual cooperation between East and West.The current turmoil in the global financial markets may have dented investor confidence and precipitated investor caution in the short-term, but for the discerning, specialised and bespoke investor there are some surprisingly good deals in the global real estate market.

Despite the fact that global commercial property transaction volumes in First Half 2008, according to international property consultants, Jones Lang LaSalle, have fallen 41 per cent to US$236bn from the record level of First Half 2007, the good news is that the globalisation of real estate ownership especially by investors from China, Russia, India and the Middle East, is increasing. Cross-border activity in the global real estate market, for instance in First Half 2008, accounted for 45 per cent of all such transactions.

In addition, the levels of real estate transparency in the emerging markets have improved significantly in 2008. Jones Lang LaSalle's Real Estate Transparency Index provides a rigorous framework for evaluating the level of real estate transparency in 82 countries worldwide.

"Transparency levels globally are improving as governments seek to streamline regulatory and legal hurdles to aid cross-border movement of capital and corporate facilities," stresses Dr Lee Elliot, a Director of Research at Jones Lang Lasalle.

Canada, Australia, the US, New Zealand and the UK are the most transparent real estate markets in the world, but Dubai, Russia, Romania, Egypt and Saudi Arabia showed the largest improvement in their real estate transparency in the 2006-2008 period.

The current market conditions especially the fall in the volumes of real estate transactions, says Tony Horrell, CEO, European Capital Markets, is "driven by global credit conditions which made debt both less available and more expensive... It may well take another year before debt markets stabilize and in the meantime we are likely to see increased distress selling. High growth markets perceived as oversold are likely to attract the most attention from buyers. With the high velocity of pricing change come opportunities for buyers. The range of opportunity will increase for those able to commit equity in the next 12 months."

With all these market dynamics, IREF 2008 could not have come at a more opportune time. Real estate will always remain an attractive investment asset class for Middle East investors both in the region and out of the region.