Dubai CommerCity has announced six new office buildings, and on Thursday 5 November 2026 the people who own, rent, regulate and fund offices like them meet on that campus. “Dubai Office Summit” puts owners, authorities, occupiers and lenders in one room for a morning. It asks two questions: who is arriving, and who pays for the space they need?
What kind of meeting is it?
It is a short, invitation-only morning meeting on Dubai's office market, organised by RealTimes, according to the event page. The venue is Spaces (IWG), Building B-2, Level 1, in Dubai CommerCity, Umm Ramool.
The morning runs through breakfast and networking, an opening, a keynote, two panels, and closing words with time to talk. A short meeting forces choices: each panel has one question to answer, and the room has time to react.
Who is it for?
The event page names four groups, and each brings its own question into the room.
- Office owners and developers ask what tenants will lease, and in which formats.
- City and free-zone authorities ask how to bring firms in and where to house them.
- Occupiers, meaning companies choosing offices, ask where to sit, at what cost and with what flexibility.
- Investors and lenders ask which buildings are worth funding.
Each group holds one piece of the answer. Owners know what can be built. Authorities set the rules and bring firms in. Occupiers decide where demand lands. Investors and lenders decide what gets funded. A single morning cannot replace reports, calls and private meetings, but it can put the groups' assumptions side by side, so that each hears the other's limits directly.
How does the morning run?
The programme follows the logic of the market. The event page lists these blocks, and the full programme is still to be announced there.
1. Breakfast and networking. 2. The opening, moderated by Alex Morari, CEO, Shelton Reed. 3. A keynote, details to be announced. 4. Two panels on Dubai's office market. 5. Closing words and networking.
The order is deliberate. Demand comes before capital because capital follows tenants. A lender asks who will rent the building before it asks what the building costs. Putting the demand panel first lets the capital panel respond to what the room has just heard.
What will the first panel ask?
The first panel, "Who's Moving to Dubai, and Where Will They Sit?", is about demand: which companies are arriving and where they will sit.
The confirmed panellist is Prathyusha Gurrapu, Head of Research at Cushman & Wakefield Core in Dubai. The event page describes her as an architect and urban planner by training who joined the firm in 2015 and established its Strategic Consulting team. Other seats and the moderator are to be announced.
The venue gives the panel a live example. Dubai CommerCity has announced six new office buildings in formats from shell-and-core to plug-and-play, per Entrepreneur Middle East. We assess that case in our CommerCity piece. The authority that runs CommerCity, the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), also runs two other zones and reports 96% occupancy across all three in H1 2026, according to Zawya. We explain that structure in our free zone or mainland guide.
What will the second panel ask?
The second panel, "Local and Global Capital in Dubai's Offices", is about local and global capital in Dubai's offices. Our piece on who buys Dubai offices sets out the background.
- The moderator is Angus Anderson, Editor of Finance Middle East, part of ITP Media Group in Dubai.
- The confirmed panellist is Andrew Love, International Partner and Regional Head of Commercial Transactions at Knight Frank, based in Dubai, where he leads the firm's Capital Markets and Occupier Services business for the Middle East and Africa.
- Other seats are to be announced.
The panel follows a chain. A buyer finds an asset, a lender or fund provides money, and the building changes hands or is developed. If the two panels' answers agree, the market has a clear line from tenant to lender. If they clash, that shows where the gap is.
Who hosts?
The host is Marwan Houry, a Principal and Vice President of Strategy & Development at AE7 and Head of its Abu Dhabi office. He also sits on the firm's Board of Directors. AE7 is an architecture and design firm founded in Dubai in 2009, according to the event page. Mr Houry has more than 25 years of architecture experience and is responsible for Burj Azizi and Dubai Water Canal, according to the same page. He took part in a RealTimes interview at IPS Congress 2026 in Dubai. As host (MC), he moves the programme along. He is not a panellist.
We list confirmed speakers only. If a seat is open, or a name is not yet agreed, we say "to be announced" rather than guess. The event page carries the current list.
Disclosure: AE7 is the architect of Burj Azizi, covered in our tower design piece. That piece does not quote Mr Houry.
Why Dubai CommerCity?
The venue sits inside a free zone that is adding office supply, so two Dubai office stories meet there: demand from new firms, and capital behind new buildings.
We are also open about one point. The venue is part of the story we cover. Spaces, an IWG brand, runs a flexible workspace in CommerCity, launched with the free zone in 2023, and the summit is hosted in its space. We treat that as context, not endorsement, and we keep our reporting on CommerCity separate from our role as organiser. Our reporting on flexible space stays neutral across operators, as it does across landlords.
For readers who want to prepare, our other pieces in this series cover the questions the room is likely to test:
- Grade A versus Grade B on quality and what tenants pay for.
- Supply to 2028 on what is being built.
- Who buys Dubai offices on owners and capital.
- Free zone or mainland on the occupier's choice.
What will we publish afterwards?
We will report what was said, not only who attended. The write-up will keep to what speakers said on the day and will name sources for any figures they use. Where speakers disagree, we will say so. Where the room supports or contradicts a view we have argued, we will say that too.
If you work in Dubai offices as an owner, adviser, occupier or lender, the practical step is to read the event page and request an invitation.
What to watch
- Further speakers, as they are confirmed, and the keynote.
- The first panel's moderator.
- Whether the demand panel and the capital panel describe the same market.
- What lenders and investors say they will fund, and what they will not.
- Which numbers speakers use, and where they come from.
Request an invitation to “Dubai Office Summit”, Thursday 5 November 2026, Dubai CommerCity.
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