Palm investors given revised pay-up dates

Angela Giuffrida

• Last Updated: April 04. 2009 8:36PM UAE / April 4. 2009 4:36PM GMT

Property investors in Nakheel’s Palm Jebel Ali development have been shown a revised payment schedule because of the delay to construction.

About 400 homebuyers last month petitioned the developer to reschedule their payment plans because their villas are likely to be delivered four years late. They were shown the documents for a revised plan by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) last week.

Under the new terms the next instalment, which was due on 1 April, has been deferred until the end of this year, while the remainder will be linked to stages in construction thereafter. A group of investors was shown documents confirming the new plan in a meeting with Essa al Mansoori, the head of the trust accounts section at RERA, last week.

“Mr al Mansoori was very clear that we should not be making any payments at all at the moment as construction hasn’t started,” said Aarti Chana, one of the investors.
“They assured us that payment will only be made once construction begins.” The investors are yet to receive an official confirmation from Nakheel, although one was told by the firm that it will confirm “within 10 days”.

The investor was also told there was no need to pay the April 1 instalment. “We have asked them to confirm but are still waiting,” Ms Chana said. Nakheel said in a statement on Thursday: “Nakheel works closely with RERA, as it does with all industry-related partners, to help maintain a healthy market under the current circumstances.

“Nakheel appreciates RERA’s efforts and initiatives aimed at protecting the interests of all parties involved.” While land reclamation on the development, the second of Nakheel’s three palm-shaped islands, is complete and infrastructure work is under way, construction of the villas is yet to begin.

Investors were told in January that the property would not be handed over to them until 2012, having initially been scheduled for last June.

Most have so far paid 30 per cent of the total price. The start of construction of the 1,300 homes planned at Palm Jebel Ali was initially put back because of a change in the designs in late 2007.

agiuffrida@thenational.ae