Thursday, May 31, 2012

Dubai Nakheel, the Dubai-based property developer, said yesterday it recorded a net profit of Dh362 million for the first quarter of 2012, as it handed over more properties and cut costs.

The company made a loss of Dh36 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

“The positive results of Q1, 2012 following from the robust financial results achieved in the year 2011, continue to indicate a relatively more stable real estate market in Dubai,” the company said in an e-mailed statement, adding that other business segments, including retail and leasing, also contributed positively to the results.

The company’s revenues in the first quarter, meanwhile, almost tripled to Dh1.35 billion against revenues of Dh522 million in Q1, 2011. This was mainly driven by the handover of development properties in a number of Nakheel projects, the company said.

Pending unit handovers

“With a significant number of unit handovers in the pipeline, we can expect to see some strengthening of the [company’s] balance sheet over the next 24 months,” Matthew Green, CBRE’s Middle East’s Head of Research & Consultancy, UAE, told Gulf News.

Nakheel further said that effective cost control measures resulted in reducing overheads by Dh22 million compared to the corresponding period in 2011, while net assets stood at Dh24.5 billion at the end of March, a Dh1 billion increase over the previous year period.

Nakheel launched a couple of big projects on the Palm Jumeirah in recent months. In May, it launched a new mixed-use residential development called Palm Views comprising 192 studio units — all priced at Dh1 million, with handover expected in the first quarter of 2014. And The Palma Residence, featuring 102 townhouses, was launched in February.

Preference for established locations

The recent product offerings, according to CBRE’s Green, are representative of “improving confidence levels” in the market. “But we would only expect to see new off-plan schemes being launched in already established locations such as the Palm, Downtown or Emirates Living,” he said, adding that investors by and large remain “wary” of incomplete products. “And that is unlikely to change in the short term with significant supply looming and uncertainty in global markets prevailing,” Green said.

By Shweta Jain Senior Reporter

Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.