Large-scale real estate development projects are increasingly often facilitated by transnational flows of capital investment and development expertise. While such projects clearly contain elements that closely correspond to classic notions of urban entrepreneurialism, the drivers and strategies behind them are rather different due to the close involvement of national level state actors, real estate developers and capital investors respectively. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the case of Belgrade Waterfront, a large-scale mixed-use real estate development project in Serbia, developed by a company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is illustrated how the foreign developer and the Serbian government are realizing the project by selectively applying a number of "Dubaiprinciples" to urban development. Based on extensive qualitative research, including interviews in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Belgrade, it is argued that the experimental purposes of this transnational project are best understood through a combined lens of geopolitical and geoeconomic processes.

In this paper, we review the emerging geographical literature dealing with large‐scale transnational real estate development projects (TREDs). Predominantly geared towards (often imagined) upper middle classes through eye‐catching and mixed‐use projects, the distinctive feature of TREDs is that they are facilitated by a formative transnational investor/developer. Based on a literature review and an analysis of fDi Markets data, we discuss the nature of TREDs, where they can be found, which actors and companies are mainly responsible for them, how they emerge and materialize (or not), and why they are so relevant in contemporary economic geography. It is argued that TREDs are both characteristic of and contribute to the rise of authoritarian urban development practices. We furthermore show that both fictitious and symbolic capital play a role and that real estate and geopolitical strategies are inextricably linked with one another. Given that interscalar dynamics between the main facilitators of TREDs are still relatively understudied within economic geography, we end with a call to develop more in‐depth perspectives on these matters.

Contemporary large-scale real estate developments often have an explicit transnational character. Particularly in late development contexts, they are frequently financed and developed by foreign stakeholders. United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based transnational developers have been the largest global providers of greenfield real estate foreign direct investment (GREFDI) between 2003 and 2014. A closer look at these activities, however, reveals that only a limited percentage of the announced projects eventually materialized. Based on a thorough study of several academic articles, online media coverage, and interviews conducted with real estate experts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2018, this paper critically evaluates the current status of transnational real estate development projects (TREDs) announced by the UAE companies in the early 21st century, as well as the most common implementation strategies and rationales behind them. It illustrates how closely geopolitics, geo-economics, and real estate can be intertwined, especially when transnational developers are closely related to their home governments. Against this backdrop, TREDs are often a part of broader bilateral business deals, and can simultaneously be driven by the desire of acquiring symbolic capital on behalf of the political actors involved. Furthermore, it is concluded that TREDs that are facilitated by UAE-based developers are fairly similar to contemporary TREDS on behalf of government-related developers from other emerging economies.