Blog
Notes from the work.
Practical writing on feasibility studies, financial models, Manateq land applications and QDB financing — the questions that come up in the first ten minutes of a call, answered properly.
QDB Manarat (Jahiz 3): rent, unit sizes and what the application asks for
Sixteen ready-built factory units for high-tech manufacturing, at QAR 24 per square metre a month. What a full term costs once the rent-free months are counted, why the smaller unit is the more expensive one per square metre of production, who QDB excludes, and what each of the two application stages asks for.
Read the article →Are you eligible for QDB's Working Capital Guarantee?
The Working Capital Stabilization Guarantee Program covers three months of payroll and rent through your own bank, guaranteed in full. But 394 of the 1,526 activities on QDB's own eligible list fail the eligibility test QDB publishes — one in four. How to check your activity code properly, what your ceiling works out to, and why taking the maximum grace period doubles the instalment.
Read the article →What the National Funding Gate asks you to produce
Qatar's business financing applications now run through one channel. The published document checklist behind it is organised by what you are borrowing for rather than by the size of the company, the projection period is set by the tenor you request, and the two routes put a different institution in the first reader position.
Read the article →Will QDB finance your project?
Most applications are settled by eligibility long before anyone reads the study. The sectors QDB excludes outright, the List of Unattractive Industries it publishes and how that list is scoped, the Qatari ownership requirement, what the bank actually lends against, and the criteria a project is scored on.
Read the article →What Manateq land actually costs
Rent runs from 5 to 50 riyals per square metre and is set by solution type rather than by park — under a reduction that expires. But the expensive decision is the floor area ratio band, which breaks at 2,000 square metres, and the minimum coverage you are obliged to build on whatever land you take.
Read the article →How much land should you ask Manateq for?
The application asks for a Conceptual Site Layout, and that drawing is where the plot size is actually decided. Where the area comes from, what published coverage, setback and loading rules do to your usable ground, and the constraint tied to plot size that has nothing to do with space at all.
Read the article →What a QDB reviewer actually looks for in your cash flow
Direct Financing applications rarely fail because the projections were too modest. They fail on the model — the forecast horizon, how the money actually moves at disbursement, the month grace ends, working capital, and whether revenue reconciles to capacity. The routine checks, and how to run them on your own file first.
Read the article →Business plan or feasibility study — which one does your application need?
Manateq asks for one or the other. QDB asks specifically for a technical and financial feasibility study. The wording is not accidental, and choosing the lighter document can cost you weeks. What each institution actually requires, why start-ups do not need audited accounts, and the free QDB service most applicants have never heard of.
Read the article →What is coming next
- Costing a project properly from supplier quotations
- Grace periods, tenor and why coverage looks better than it is
- Working capital: the number most applicants get wrong
- Sensitivity analysis without the guesswork
Topics are drawn from questions clients actually ask. If there is something you want covered, send it over.
Have a question about your application?
Tell us which programme or zone you are applying under and we will tell you what it calls for — and whether what you already have will hold up. No obligation.