Aldar maintains its aim at Abu Dhabi mid-market property

Mohamed Al Mubarak, centre, with other Aldar executives, launcheed The Bridges development on Reem Island. Antonie Robertson / The National

Aldar Properties will continue its focus on the price-conscious Abu Dhabi investor with the launch at a property exhibition in the capital today of its second mid-market off-plan housing project.

Abu Dhabi’s largest listed developer said yesterday that it plans to build 1,272 homes on Reem Island with prices for studio apartments starting at Dh450,000.

At 2015’s Cityscape Abu Dhabi event, Aldar launched Shams Meera, its first mid-market project, with prices starting at Dh900,000 for a one-bedroom flat. Construction work started in 2016.

Aldar said that the new Dh1.3 billion The Bridges project, close to Repton School Abu Dhabi in the Shams district of Reem Island, would comprise six towers, three of which the developer plans to retain as part of its leasing portfolio.

The news comes as brokers published more bearish data on the Abu Dhabi property market. Asteco said yesterday that apartment sale prices for completed properties fell by an average of 2 per cent in the first three months of the year and 4 per cent compared with a year earlier. Earlier, JLL and dubizzle put the decline at 5 per cent.

“As far as we’re concerned work is going at full steam ahead,” said Mohamed Al Mubarak, Aldar’s chief executive.

“Museums are being built, theme parks are being built, schools are being built, hospitals are being built. All these need people to work in them.”

Aldar said it was marketing the project to end users and investors earning between Dh20,000 and Dh30,000 a month – people the company said made up between 40 and 60 per cent of the total population of the capital.

Studio apartments are priced at between Dh450,000 and Dh460,000. One-bedroom apartments will be marketed for Dh730,000 and two-bed apartments for about Dh1 million.

Construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter, with handover during the first quarter of 2020.

Aldar’s launch is expected to be one of a number of off-plan property launches at Cityscape Abu Dhabi.

These include Imkan, which will start marketing its The Artery building in the new Makers the District on Reem Island, and Abu Dhabi developer Bloom, which will start marketing its Bloom Towers housing development in Jumeirah Village Circle in Dubai.

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