MAF Joins MIT/CRE as a Strategic Partner

Majid Al Futtaim will join the worldwide network of some 1,300 MIT Center alumni, researchers, affiliates and 30 strategic industry partners.

Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping malls, communities, retail, and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, announces its membership of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate (MIT/CRE) as a Strategic Partner.

Majid Al Futtaim will join the worldwide network of some 1,300 MIT Center alumni, researchers, affiliates, and 30 strategic industry partners.

The partnership will enable Majid Al Futtaim and MIT/CRE to collaborate on in-depth research in areas of common interest, as well as provide development opportunities for Majid Al Futtaim professionals, along with industry resources for MIT faculty and students to apply innovative concepts and solutions to real-world environments. The latter will include access to Majid Al Futtaim’s leadership team and its broad portfolio of real estate developments, including its shopping malls and integrated residential communities across the region.

“As the first real estate developer from the MENA region to join the MIT Center for Real Estate as a strategic partner, Majid Al Futtaim – Properties is excited to work with the distinguished professors and students of MIT, one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions. At the same time, we are delighted to bring our expertise in pioneering the region’s most exciting destinations to the table, as well as our ambitions and plans to reinvent many of these experiences,” said Ahmed Galal Ismail, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim – Properties, explaining the importance of the partnership.

The MIT/CRE is one of the world’s foremost institutes offering an interdisciplinary platform for the study of real estate and its related practices, from initial concept to market reality. It brings together professors and researchers in urban design and planning, urban and environmental economics, sustainability and climate technology (climatech), digital innovation and property technology (proptech), real estate financing and investment, project delivery, Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning, and data science, and other topics of interest to the global real estate industry.

Professor Kairos Shen, Executive Director of the MIT Center for Real Estate, commented, “The MIT Center for Real Estate sits at the intersection of technology, innovation, and the built environment. We bring together some of the world’s leading thinkers in various disciplines, which guides our holistic approach to better understanding how the real estate industry currently operates and how it continues to evolve. Importantly, we work with leading real estate firms like Majid Al Futtaim to put theory into practice and help better understand some of the most pressing issues of the day, such as the digital transformation, responding to urban growth, sustainability, and resiliency, and consumer trends.”

The Center additionally has several subject-focused research initiatives, including the Real Estate Climate Initiative, Real Estate Technology Initiative, Price Dynamics Platform, and Asia Real Estate Initiative. It also works with other faculties and departments at MIT, including the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Mobility Initiative, to incorporate the latest thinking and insights for the improvement of the built environment.