China State Construction Engineering Co, one of China's biggest contractors, is leveraging its experience to deliver large housing projects for the increasing demand in the GCC, specifically Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The firm is targeting the needs of governments in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE in delvering large numbers of housing units for its nationals through a plan where the Chinese firm would develop and then manage these housing developments between twenty and thirty years.

The company's Middle East CEO Yu Tao, in an interview with Construction Week, said the company had delivered land developments with up to 100,000 new homes on ten square kilometer plots of land. The company would provide the designs the masterplans, seeks initial funding, builds the homes and maintains the projects through long term joint ventures through government partnerships.

According to CEO Tao, "That's where we built our reputation in the China market. We have ten percent of the China market. Out of the 1.3 billion population, 130 million is living in property that we constructed or developed." He added, "We like this kind of arrangement because it is a very high threshold. That really rates your ability- not just for so-called construction but for township planning, financial arrangement and a very good ability to sell."