Aldar Properties is marketing a further 32 plots of land on Abu Dhabi’s super-posh Nareel Island reserved for Emiratis.
The capital’s largest listed property developer started selling the high-value villa plots close to the Al Bateen area of Abu Dhabi, at a marketing event at Emirates Palace on Sunday.
The launch followed the first-phase sale of 27 villa plots in the scheme in which Aldar said that buyers committed almost Dh500 million in reservations.
The price equates to an average of Dh18.5m for each villa plot — and that is even before even taking into consideration the cost of building a villa on each piece of land.
Purchasers will be provided with clear design guidelines, to ensure that Nareel Island is developed in line with the community’s aesthetic identity.
In total Aldar said the Nareel Island development comprises 148 villa plots, which the company plans to sell over the coming years.
Aldar said that the first villa plots would be available for purchasers to start to build on in the first quarter of 2017.
The developer is currently working on infrastructure on the island which includes installing electricity, water, roads and facilities such as a club house.
The move comes despite reports of a slowdown in the Abu Dhabi property market. According to the consultants Asteco, apartment sales prices increased just 1 per cent during the first three months of 2015 and villa prices remained the same, following rapid growth last year.
“We are confident that it will continue to see strong demand over the coming sales phases,” said Mohammed Al Mubarak, the Aldar chief executive, at the sales launch.
In March Aldar announced that it had sold 281 villa plots reserved for Emiratis at its 690,000 square metre Al Merief master planned community to be built in Khalifa City, close to Masdar and Al Raha Beach, where villa plots averaged Dh2.1m.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter