The developer Nakheel's villa complex in the Nad Al Sheba area of Dubai that will comprise hundreds of villas will run up construction costs of Dh2.5 billion.
The development will include 900 units of three to five-bedroom villas for lease, besides 100 serviced homes. All of these come with private swimming pools.
Artists’ impressions of the yet-unnamed gated community show low-rise villas in landscaped surroundings, spread over 2.5 million square feet. The development will include a clubhouse and a retail centre with shops, cafes, a community pool and sports facilities.
The separate complex of 100 serviced villas will include a health club with spa, a lap pool and restaurant, besides housekeeping and laundry services.
Residents of the complex will have access to Nakheel’s beach facilities on Palm Jumeirah and daily transport services to the city’s malls and attractions.
As Dubai’s composite business confidence index continues to grow, the real estate sector is recovering from the lows of the global financial crisis of 2008. In the first quarter, the index was at 135.5 points, an increase of 22.4.
This month, Dubai Holding announced the Dh25bn Mall of the World project, which will include a mall, a theme park, 100 hotels and serviced apartment buildings.
In a separate announcement yesterday, Dubai’s Azizi Developments launched 99 apartments, whose total value is Dh140 million, in Al Furjan near Discovery Gardens. Called Azizi. Orchid Residence, the project comprises one to three-bedroom furnished apartments. Prices start at Dh950 per sq ft and construction is expected to be complete by December next year. The apartments, which are all up for sale, start at 700 sq ft.
The total value of real estate sales in Dubai was Dh21.4bn year to date. The figure was Dh38.3bn for the whole of last year, according to the Dubai Land Department.
Most of the uplift in real estate transactions last year came from land transfers, according to JLL’s first quarter report on the Dubai real estate market.
“Despite this increased activity, there remain few reported transactions of completed, income producing assets,” it said.
Prices of residential units in the first quarter rose 33 per cent year-on-year and average rents increased 23 per cent year-on-year in Dubai, according to JLL.
However, price growth stalled in premium locations in the second quarter, the broker Asteco said this month.
This month, Nakheel reported a net profit of Dh1.85bn, an increase of 54 per cent for the first half supported by revenue growth from property development, retail, leasing and leisure businesses.
It said it would also prepay Dh7.9bn owed in bank debt in August, four years ahead of a March 2018 due date.
The construction value of the Nakheel project in Nad Al Sheba is estimated at Dh2.5bn. Dubai’s Arif and Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers will design and provide engineering services at a cost of Dh27 million. Expected to be completed in 2016, Nakheel will release construction tenders in three months, and award a contract by the end of the year.
“Our current residential leasing portfolio of almost 17,000 homes continues to be in huge demand, with almost 100 per cent occupancy across the entire range,” Ali Rashid Lootah, the company’s chairman, said in a statement.
Nakheel’s residential portfolio includes The Gardens, International City, Discovery Gardens and Jebel Ali Village. More supply such as the 942 units of three-bedroom town houses at Warsan Village near International City, and Nad Al Sheba is in the pipeline.
Also waiting to come onstream are 10 hotels, including luxury and budget properties at The Palm Tower on Palm Jumeirah, Deira Islands, Dragon Mart and Ibn Battuta Mall, over the next five years. Expected this year is a 246-room three-star hotel at Dragon Mart.
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