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Masdar To Delay Final Completion Until At Least 2020

2010-10-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Final completion of Masdar City, the carbon-neutral development being built just outside Abu Dhabi, will be delayed until at least 2020, four years after its original deadline.

In an emailed statement released to Dow Jones, the government-backed renewable energy company said the city’s first phase would now be completed in 2015. It also stated that completion on the site would not take place until between 2020 and 2025.

Masdar also added that it may also bring in renewable power from external sources, contrary to its initial plan to use only onsite resources.

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Jumeirah Lakes Towers 60% Complete

2010-09-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

About 60 per cent of the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) development has been completed, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), the community's master developer and operator, said on Monday.

This milestone was achieved after Armada Group, a sub-developer, completed the third tower in its mixed-use cluster.

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Service Fee Defaulters Face Losing Their Homes

2010-09-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

Dubai homeowners who have failed to pay off the service fee will now have to wash their hands off from their property.

The Dubai Land Department will repossess and auction off the homes of those who fail to pay maintenance fees as part of the emirate’s new strata law, according to an official notice issued yesterday.

As developers hand over the maintenance of shared buildings and communities to homeowners associations, hundreds of owners who owe thousands of dirhams in service charges risk losing their properties.

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UAE Banks To Make Dh3bn In Dubai World Provisions

2010-09-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

The UAE banks could book up to Dh3 billion in provisions related to Dubai World's debt restructuring in the second half of this year, dampening the banking industry's performance, according to investment bank Shuaa Capital.

Sofia El Boury, a banking analyst at Shuaa Capital's Research Department, said all of the UAE banks have not come clear on their exposure to Dubai World "provisions which could range between Dh2 billion to Dh3bn in the second half considering the latest data."

Saudi Mortgage Law To Focus On Affordable Housing Shortage

2010-09-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

Experts have raised a warning against the lack of low-cost accommodation in Saudi Arabia. According to real estate experts, this shortage in the affordable property will reflect in the agenda of the mortgage law, which Saudi Arabia is planning to implement soon.

“Most new developments are targeting the high-income segments of the population which constitute a relatively small share of existing demand,” said Rakesh Kunhiraman, who is the director at the consulting division of Oxford Business Group (OBG).

Egypt’s Amer Group Invites GCC Investors

2010-08-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

Egypt’s leading developer and operator of luxury destination resorts, the Amer Group, has launched a special ‘Triple 10 Offer’ for GCC and Middle Eastern investors to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. The unique offer provides customers with the opportunity to own an apartment at the Group’s flagship resorts – ‘Porto Marina’ and ‘Porto Golf Marina’ by paying only ten per cent in advance with the outstanding balance paid over ten quarterly installments. The third aspect of the offer is ten days free accommodation at the Porto World Egyptian resort of the purchaser’s choice. Real Estate prices at the resort start from US$255,000.

Porto Marina is Egypt’s premier destination resort, providing 885 luxurious homes, a 379 room 5-star standard hotel, shops, restaurants, cinema, health spa, gymnasium, marina and private beach.

Dubai apartments

House prices on Palm Jumeirah sink to three year low

2010-08-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

Since the start of the property crash in late 2008, prices have now fallen by nearly 70 percent in some parts of the Palm, though across the development the average drop is believed to be closer to 40 percent.

In May this year the Arabian Business Think Tank forecast that prices on the Palm Jumeirah will plummet another 20 percent in the next year. It predicted that average prices for an apartment on Nakheel's man-made island will fall to just AED1,022 per square foot by May 2011.

Meanwhile the latest data from real estate consultancy Colliers said that house prices across Dubai fell by four percent in the second quarter, according to the latest data from real estate consultancy Colliers.

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Ramadan Kareem Wishes!!!!

2010-08-13T00:55:00.000-07:00

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Dubai Municipality To Use RERA Index

2010-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dubai Municipality has come up with a new set of rules for the house owners of Dubai. The owners will now have to pay 5% Dubai Municipality (DM) housing fee, even if the property is vacant, provided there is a DEWA connection.

The Dubai Municipality has also mentioned that it is not ready to withstand any kind of cheating the residents are showcasing by listing rents which are very much below the prevailing market rates for the specific region. According to municipality, it will be forced to use RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, rent index if any kind of malpractice is witnessed.

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Pier Walk Sold Off By Quintain Estates

2010-08-10T04:31:00.000-07:00

Quintain Estates and Development, a British property investor, has sold off Pier Walk which is situated at Greenwich Peninsula to the Germany-based DekaBank. The property is situated in a location which is close to Canary Wharf of London. DekaBank is the leading open-ended fund manager of Germany.

A whopping £97.1 million ($154.4m; Dh567m) was paid in cash by Deka Immobilien GmbH in exchange for the property, which is almost 6% up from the face value of the property that had been evaluated during March 2010. The investment yield will stand at 5.9%.

Dubai rentals

Jumeirah To Manage Egyptian Luxury Resort

2010-08-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

Dubai-based luxury hospitality firm, Jumeriah Group, has disclosed on Monday, 02.08.2010, that it will be overseeing a new deluxe resort located in Egypt. The luxury hospitality organization has mentioned that a deal has been struck with Egypt’s leading development company, Palm Hills Development for the management of Jumeirah Gamsha Bay Resort. The Jumeriah Resort is situated in the Palm Gamsha resort constructed by PHD on Red Sea, Egypt.

Jumeriah will be managing 250-room multi-purpose hotel of Palm Gamsha. It is a comprehensive community and has 20 artificial islands designed as a sea horse. The resort is situated to the north west of Hurghada airport at a distance of 47 km.

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REIDIN.com index reveals 6.99% increase in Dubai villa sales price between Q2 2009 and Q2 2010

2010-07-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

REIDIN.com, the leading real estate information company covering emerging markets has today announced the June figures of its Sales Price Index for Dubai (SPID) part of its INDEXFocus-UAE product, an online database of proprietary real estate indices for UAE designed to accurately track price fluctuations in the residential real estate market.

INDEXFocus is a service dedicated to providing real estate indicies and other benchmark data. Sales Price Index for Dubai (SPID) is launched by REIDIN.com based on the actual transactions in an exclusive partnership with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) and the Dubai Land Department (DLD). The service provides the Dubai market with a series of indices and data sets that can help improve transparency across the market and help real estate professionals to benchmark and analyse residential price trends.

Power and water cut from 1,654 Dubai homes in H1

2010-07-26T00:29:00.000-07:00

Nearly 4,400 houses in Dubai have been found violating building and construction rules during the first half of 2010 as part of the One Villa, One Family campaign, a senior official has said. Omar AbdulRahman, head of Building Inspection Section at Dubai Municipality, said that 40,707 houses in Dubai had been inspected since start of the initiative aimed at reducing overcrowding in properties in the emirate.

AbdulRahman said about 1,654 houses had had its power and water cut off as a result of violations. He added that surprise visits in coordination with various government departments would continue and fines would be imposed. He said violations included bachelors staying in family areas, and multiple families staying in one house.

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The Nation Investor Planning Two Private Equity Deals

2010-07-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

Abu Dhabi-based investment service provider, The National Investor, has plans for closing two “substantial” private equity deals by 2010 end. “We have capital to invest; we generally do about two deals a year and we will do the same this year”, said the TNI private equity director Yahya Jalil.

He also mentioned that TNI was honing on ‘something substantial’ at present, but declined to disclose the details of the massive transactions.

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Abu Dhabi To Have 73,000 New Homes By 2013

2010-07-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

According to reports from the UAE newspaper, The National, 20% of the new residential properties being developed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, will be set aside to meet the housing requirements of middle income group while the rent of a studio will be as minimum as Dh 25,200 per annum. Michael White, who is a senior planning manager at Urban Planning Council, Abu Dhabi, has mentioned that the initial set of homes which are being developed in sync with the new rules will be launched in the real estate market “probably within the next year or two”.

According to the council, out of the 73,000 homes slated to be constructed by 2013, 15,000 will be earmarked for middle income group. The rents will be somewhere around 35% of the income of the household. For those who want to enjoy reduced rent rates, the income should be within the upper ceiling of Dh 252,000.

Dubai Rentals

Drake & Scull Wins Dohaland Flagship Cooling Project

2010-07-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

The 182-million-Qatari-riyal worth design and development contract for the two cooling plants at Dohaland’s Musheireb project has been awarded to Drake & Scull International’s arm, Drake & Scull Water and Power. The firm will be responsible for the comprehensive design and development of these cooling plants which have cooling towers and chiller plants. The district cooling has a refrigeration capacity of 29,250 tonnes.

According to Mohammad Masoud Al Merri, Director-Projects, Dohaland, “We are delighted to award the design and build contract to Drake and Scull for the district cooling plants for the Musheireb project”. According to the contract, the designing and building of hilled water reticulation network having valves and valve chambers, the mechanical electrical and plumbing services, testing and commissioning of the plants will all be taken care of by Drake & Scull.

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Dubai Properties Group Sees Surge in Demand Following Leasing Campaign

2010-07-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

Dubai Properties Group (DPG), a member of Dubai Holding, today announced a significant increase in demand for its built-to-lease communities throughout Dubai as UAE residents opt for quality and location at excellent value for money.

The increased demand is the direct result of DPG’s comprehensive six-week-long campaign to promote its built-to-lease communities across Dubai. DPG has received thousands of calls each week driving hundreds of visits to the community’s site offices daily. The comprehensive campaign was rolled out earlier this month across various marketing channels including the radio, print, digital, online and outdoor platforms.

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Dubai Green Buiding's to receive incentives

2010-07-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

According to reports from a Dubai government official, the Government is formulating a scheme for providing the green buildings having “green building code” with certain incentives. The plan is expected to be disclosed over the next two months.

“The government is working on an incentive plan for green buildings. Dubai has been on the forefront of introducing green concepts… now the code has gone into printing and will be released in two months”, said Essa Al Mai door, Assistant Director-General for Planning and Engineering, Dubai Municipality.

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Dubai Rental Index Being Revamped

2010-07-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Land Department of Dubai is working on revamping the rental index, making it more comprehensive. As of Monday, the rent increase calculator on the Real Estate Regulatory Agency’s (Rera) website was not showing the requisite calculations from July 1 onwards with an alert saying, “no rental index available for the selected date”.

The first rent index in Dubai was released in January 2009, complied on the basis of rents during the second half of 2008. Rera says it is not mandatory for landlords to follow the rent index but it is just a guideline or a reference point in case of disputes.

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Saadiyat Beach Apartment Construction Gets A Nod

2010-06-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

The first phase of Saadiyat Beach Apartments will soon kick off as The Tourism Development and Investment Company, which is the prime constructor of tourism, cultural, and residential destinations in Abu Dhabi, has assigned the development work to Abu Dhabi-based Dhabi Contracting Establishment. About 495 apartments will be constructed in the first phase.

Located in the centre of a Saadiyat Beach community, the plans have been deciphered with Arabian and Mediterranean elements. The first phase is expected to be ready by 2011 Q4.

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Qatar World Trade Centre Construction Commences

2010-06-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

The development work of Qatar's World Trade Centre tower in Doha has commenced. The work is expected to take at least two years for completion. This was disclosed to the publicon Monday, 28.06.10, during a press conference which was held on the event of signing the agreement between Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Company, which owns theproject and the main contractor, the Arabtec Construction Company.

The blueprint of this building showcases latest technology with a very distinct architecture. The Qatar WTC will be a 50-storey tower which will be the abode of 42 levels of offices, a podium of four floors for conferences, four basement car parking and services and a Sphere Structure, housing a multi-purpose auditorium.

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Dubai Real Estate Market Overview

2010-06-29T00:03:00.000-07:00

‘Dubai Real Estate Market Overview – Q2 2010: June 2010’ covering the Dubai office, residential, retail and hospitality market segments from Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's leading real estate investment and advisory firm. It reports that tenants have greater opportunities due to increasing availability of space, declining rents, and improved lease terms as the property market begins to bottom out.

Highlights of the overview:

Dubai Real Estate Market Overview
Q2 2010
Market Highlights – Q2 / 2010

The Dubai office market continues to fragment with a further decoupling between the overall market(which is experiencing increasing vacancies) and good quality buildings in the CBD (where there remainselective shortages). While average city-wide vacancies have increased further (to around 38%), only12% of the 7.5 million sq ft of completed space in single ownership within the CBD is currently vacant.

Retail vacancies have increased to between 8% and 10% as competition intensifies and retailers haveclosed poorer performing stores. This is resulting in a flight to quality and increasing problems (brokentooth phenomenon) in poorer quality centres. The more enlightened centre managers are responding tochanging circumstances by seeking to proactively engage and offer more attractive and flexible terms totheir tenants.

Supply in the residential sector continues to complete, with fewer delays being experienced than in theoffice market. While sales activity has increased and average prices have remained relatively stable,rentals have continued to decline significantly across Q2, particularly in respect of luxury / high end villaand apartment projects.

The hotel market is the closest to the bottom of the cycle. Increased demand has resulted in a growth ofoccupancies during 2010, but average room rates and RevPAR continue to decline, especially in respectof city hotels.

Dubai Rental Clock – June 2010

Dubai Rentals

Dubai Real Estate Transactions Grow In First Five Months

2010-06-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

According to the Dubai Land Department, the transactions in the real estate sector have showcased a positive growth in the first five months of this year when compared to the corresponding period last year. 3,642 land sales worth Dh 25 billion have been recorded during this first five months. Out of the 3,169 residential properties in dubai that have been sold off since January 2010, 2,927 were apartments, of which 10 per cent have been mortgaged.

The total land area that has been sold off is about 62,815 square feet. According to the Dubai Focus section in reidin.com, in 2009, 4,961 residential lands were sold off. 3,750 mortgages worth Dh3 2 billion with an area of 95,460 square feet have been recorded during the first five month of 2010. According to the department's assistant director-general Mohammad Sultan Thani, "While we may see less value there are many more transactions on a daily basis compared to last year."

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Risk of Property Bubble of Asia Moderate

2010-06-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

According to the international credit rating company Moody’s, even though the property prices have surged, there is only a moderate level of risk from the asset bubbles that have developed in Asia.

According to Deborah Schuler who is the Senior Vice-President at Moody's handling the ratings in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the steps adopted by the government to ease the market have proven to be effective. "At the moment, we think asset bubbles are confined to the property sector and it's still only a moderate risk," she said.

Dubai rentals

Low Rents Increases Dubai Villas Demand

2010-06-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

Reports claim that there is a tremendous increase in the demand for villas in Dubai. The major reason behind this is the steep decline in the rents, which was a result of excessive supply of the property into the real estate market. The real estate firm expects that Dubai will be the abode to 3,500 to 4,000 more villas by end of 2010.

"Villa rentals are looking very attractive at the moment. With a further supply of villas to enter Dubai, rentals are expected to decline although at a slow pace. This could trigger a 10 per cent further decline in villa rents. However, villas are strong assets for Dubai and demand for villas is always likely to be higher than apartments. If there is any correction in rental rates for villas it is only because it is a natural market situation," said Mohanad Alwadiya, Managing Director, Harbor Real Estate.