SWEIMEH, Jordan - Dubai property developer Deyaar DEYR.DU is looking to expand into five countries to tap into cheap valuations stemming from the global financial crisis, the company's chief executive said late on Friday.

In an interview with Reuters Financial Television, Markus Giebel said he expected the market to hit the bottom in a year's time.

We have been negotiating in five different countries right now and we hopefully will be able to announce the first one or two deals in the next couple of months, he said.

Deyaar will be looking at markets in the Middle East and Africa, he said.

The mature countries are not good for us. We need underdeveloped and developing countries to invest in, he said.

The former Gulf Arab boomtown of Dubai has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, which brought to an end a six-year construction boom that had driven up property prices and rents.

Dubai-based developers have put dozens of projects on hold and made thousands redundant in recent months as the property market crashed.

Many developers in the United Arab Emirates have said they will be looking to expand in other parts of the region to spread their risk and as the crisis brings bargains to the market.

(Reporting by Moira Sidoti; Writing by John Irish; Editing by David Fox)

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