UAE's real estate industry got less negative media coverage in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year, according to a report by a leading media monitoring and evaluation company.

The report, the fifth in the series by Mediastow, analysed the media coverage of the UAE real estate sector, with a focus on Al Qudra Real Estate, Aldar, Emaar, Sorouh, Dubai Properties, Nakheel, Sama Dubai and Damac.

The 34-page report assessed the success of the PR campaigns of the eight real estate developers, as well as threw light on how their media coverage fluctuated and how it compared with each other.

“As for coverage, Damac and Emaar had their amount of coverage peaks in July 2009, while Al Qudra Real Estate, Sama Dubai and Sorouh had their peak in August 2009. Finally, the coverage of Aldar Properties, Dubai Properties and Nakheel peaked in September,” stated Mohamed Elzubeir, head of Mediastow.

Emaar, followed by Sorouh and Aldar, figured in the top three in terms of newspaper coverage size, measured in column centimeters (cc), in July and August 2009. September saw Nakheel in the lead, followed by Emaar and Aldar.

A total of 3,962 articles from 168 publications were monitored between July and September 2009 for the report. Also, stock movements of Emaar, Aldar Properties and Sorouh were evaluated and correlated with media coverage.

A comparison of the facets of coverage, penetrations and content analysis are featured in this report. The report also contains the real estate sector highlights to put the performance in perspective of the current market issues.

Compared to the third quarter of 2008, there was a general drop in numbers, with some experiencing a bigger drop than others. Al Qudra, Emaar and Nakheel experienced significant decreases in the third quarter of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008, in terms of volume of coverage.

In summary, the three property developers, Emaar, Aldar Properties and Sorouh, experienced an upward trend in the third quarter of 2009. Aldar enjoyed a decent gap in terms of share prices throughout the quarter and inched further towards the latter middle part of September 2009.

'The overall volume of coverage has dropped compared to the golden era of the early 2008, but strong signs of recovery are evident. Negative coverage is now confined to the tumbling stocks, and positive coverage is increasing with projects getting back on track,” Elzubeir added.-TradeArabia News Service