Dubai developers are releasing for sale hundreds of new suburban homes, tapping positive market sentiment in the emirate.
Emaar Properties, Dubai Properties and Lootah Real Estate said yesterday that they will build a total of 845 new homes on the outskirts of Dubai.
The Dubai-listed master developer Emaar said it would start to sell 480 more three and four bedroom town houses at its Mira Oasis project at Arabian Ranches next weekend with sales events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Karachi.
Emaar did not say how much the houses would cost. The company first marketed 188 homes at the scheme last April on a first-come, first-served basis at prices starting from Dh988,888. The sale attracted crowds of more than 400 people, which became unruly and eventually police were called to restore order at the event.
“Led by the robust growth of Dubai’s economy, demand for residences continues to be strong. This is reflected in the remarkable investor interest we had recorded for our earlier launches of Mira Oasis town houses,” said Emaar’s managing director, Ahmad Al Matrooshi.
At the same time, the private developer Lootah Real Estate said it was pressing ahead with plans to build more than 1,000 homes at its Shamal Community in Jumeirah Village, where it expects demand to rise ahead of the Dubai 2020 Expo.
The developer will relaunch a phase of 289 homes that it started to build eight years ago at Jumeirah Village Circle in a scheme newly targeted at Expo workers, Lootah announced at a press conference yesterday.
Lootah, which first started to sell houses off plan in the development in November 2006, has sold 17 3,000 square foot houses, which it handed over three years ago for about Dh3 million each.
Since then the developer, which was hit hard by the global financial crisis, has negotiated with the indebted master developer Nakheel to consolidate its land holdings into one 147,000 sq ft community, which it intends to develop as a 1,050 home development.
Lootah is currently developing 204 studio apartments, which it plans to sell off plan for Dh632,000 each, and it is building 55 larger loft apartments, which it plans to sell for Dh885,000.
The developer said it had completed another 11 houses on the site which it will start marketing tomorrow for between Dh4m and Dh4.5m. It is building another 19 terraced homes of between 4,000 and 4,500 sq ft on the site.
“We have chosen to build so many studio apartments because we believe that with the Expo 2020 we will be having so many people come – young couples who don’t want to live in a big apartment, a studio will do fine for them. And we feel this area is more for Europeans,” said Saleh Abdulla Lootah, Lootah’s executive director.
“Some of them will be working on Sheikh Zayed Road, some of them will be working at Expo 2020, some of them will be working at the airport. We feel a lot of development is happening here. These people will be requiring a good reasonable place to live in,” he added.
Dubai Properties said yesterday that it was also starting to sell 76 three and four bedroom apartments at its Manazel Al Khor project at its delayed Cultural Village, which will also include 70,000 sq ft of shops, a 250-room hotel and a 60-berth marina next to the Dubai Creek.
Culture Village will also include the ambitious Palazzio Versace Dubai, made up of 169 private residences and 217 hotel suites as well as the D1 tower, all of which started construction before the global financial downturn.
“The launch of these new off-plan schemes shows that developers still believe that there is a market for off-plan properties despite the fact that there is a significant number of existing schemes on the market at the moment,” said Craig Plumb, the head of research at JLL’s Dubai office.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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