Thursday, Jul 12, 2012
Dubai
While there are still imbalances in the demand and supply equation, Dubai’s developers are - for the first time since the third quarter of 2008 - starting to test market sentiments with a series of new launches. Over the last four months, five developers have released new stock, with the latest being Dubai Festival City which is offering 24 townhouses at prices starting from Dh4.8 million.
Earlier, both Nakheel and Emaar had residential launches within their existing developments, and so did Al Barari with a limited supply of 33 premium villas. There was even the launch of a mid-priced offering in the form of the Ritaj master-development in Dubai Investments Park. All of this attests to a gradual return of investor confidence in the local property market principally driven by regional investors and, to an extent, existing residents looking to acquire homes in a still soft market.
For Dubai Festival City, the recent launch - within the Al Badia cluster - marks only its second ever. “We did sell around 10 townhouses some three years ago, but that wasn’t an official release of a particular phase,” said Ian Plumley, general manager for property sales there. “It was to satisfy the needs of some of our long-term tenants; so we sold to some tenants the property they were living in.
“To a degree it was a toe in the water for us and we stopped the exercise as the property market collapsed. Now we are officially dedicating this brand new phase to selling homes to all-comers and so this is the first official public launch of freehold townhouses in Dubai Festival City.”
A big plus for the development is that “Investors can take immediate possession as they are all completed which is a first for brand new properties in Dubai,” said Mario Volpi, head of residential sales and leasing at Cluttons.
Interestingly, within Dubai’s secondary market, the sharpest increases in asking prices have been for villas. According to a new report by Asteco, villas at Arabian Ranches were up 16 per cent during the second quarter, The Springs saw a 14 per cent gain and it was 11 per cent at Jumeirah Islands. At other villa dominated developments in the emirate, the increases were between 6 to 8 per cent.
Not surprisingly, villas on the Palm are now the most expensive at Dh17,200 a square metre followed by Jumeirah Islands and The Meadows at Dh10,750 and AED10,250 respectively.
While the majority of the new launches cater to a high-end investor, the optimum activity is for properties in the Dh1 million to Dh2 million category, according to Volpi. “Twenty-five per cent of properties fall into this bracket and the most sought-after area, according to the Land Department, is in the Burj Khalifa sub-market which would include Downtown, Old Town and Business Bay.
“Fifty per cent of all transactions this year have been in these areas.”
By Manoj Nair Associate Editor
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
