In pictures: Dubai Meydan villas back under starter's orders

Work is set to restart on plans to build thousands of villas around the world’s largest horse racing complex in Dubai.

Property developer G&Co said yesterday that it has finally broken ground on a scheme to build 198 villas on land to the south of Dubai’s Meydan racecourse after initially announcing the scheme three years ago.

The Millennium Estates gated community was planned to have been finished in 2011 but is now scheduled to be complete by late 2015.

It will be built on 3.8 million square feet of land at the Meydan free zone, most of which Meydan sold to G&Co in 2008 at prices set to average about Dh1,063 (US$3,904) per square foot.

G&Co said that it had appointed a contractor and started work on its villa scheme, which will be sold on a freehold basis.

“We are expecting most of the investment to come from the local market but we also expect some investment to come from the GCC as well,” said Joseph Ghossoub, chairman of G&Co.