The number of major global investors in the GCC property market is expected to more than double this year, according to research by Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consultancy.

Until this year, few of the “global 100″ property investors had ventured into the Gulf, despite a decade of strong growth in several countries.

The arrival of the biggest names in the business – such as American International Group (AIG), the American insurance group, and Singapore,s Capita Land, which signed a joint venture deal with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala ­Development Company last year – is a sign that global investors are gaining confidence in the legal and regulatory framework in the region.

But the newcomers will still be dwarfed by existing investors – mostly from the Middle East and other nearby countries such as Pakistan and India – so their arrival will have a limited impact on prices.

In Dubai, for example, investors have enthusiastically greeted the creation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, which weeded out many sub-standard developers.

The international investors are expected to come from a range of sectors, including banking, insurance and real estate development, and from all major economic zones including America, South Korea, Singapore and ­Europe.