Aldar targets expats with off-plan home sales at second Yas Island development

A second development of homes on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island available for expatriates to buy will go on sale next week as Abu Dhabi property company Aldar attempts to tempt off plan buyers in a difficult market.

Prices have been falling elsewhere but prices in Abu Dhabi are still holding up, according to said Talal Al Dhiyebi, Aldar’s chief development officer. Pawan Singh / The National

Lucy Barnard

A second development of homes on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island available for expatriates will go on sale next week as Aldar targets off-plan buyers in a difficult market.

The Abu Dhabi-listed property developer plans to start selling a first phase of 271 homes at its new Dh1.5 billion, 800 unit Mayan development, located between Yas Plaza, Yas Beach and Yas Links golf course on November 15.

Aldar said that 47 studio apartments would go on sale for about Dh810,000 each – equating to about Dh16,000 per square metre.

Another 117 one-bedroom apartments would go on sale for Dh1.3 million each.

At the other end of the scale, 10 beach villas will hit the market at Dh5.6 million each.

The company said that ­construction was due to start next year and the homes would be handed over to buyers in 2018.

“Prices have been falling elsewhere, but prices in Abu Dhabi are still holding up,” said Talal Al Dhiyebi, Aldar’s chief development officer.

“We continue to look at the market – whether it’s oil prices, currency and everything else. But what we see is that tourist numbers at Abu Dhabi’s airport are on the increase,” Mr Al Dhiyebi said.

“We still see some of the corporates recruiting.”

“For two consecutive years the occupancy rates on our residential portfolio of 5,000 units have been ranging between 98 and 99 per cent, which shows us that it is a very healthy market, and our office portfolio is 92 per cent let.”

The Mayan flats are part of 2,000 new off-plan homes that Aldar said it would start marketing in April as the developer banks on a shortage of supply in the city to offset a lacklustre property market.

Earlier this year the company launched 408 apartments at what it termed “affordable prices” at its new Meera ­project in the Shams area of Reem Island, as well as 1,017 villa plots at West Yas that are available only to Emiratis.

Aldar said that it was close to 80 per cent sold at its 408 Meera apartments on Reem Island.

“And when we say sold, we mean signed sales and purchase agreements where a purchaser has paid a deposit and is committed to pay in installments,” Mr Al Dhiyebi said.

Property services company Cavendish Maxwell last month reported that villa and apartment prices in Abu Dhabi dropped 1 per cent in the third quarter as the new mortgage cap, the strong dirham and the fall in global oil prices continued to weigh on the market.

As a result, prices for villas and apartments are down 4 per cent from a year ago.

Property brokers said that the Mayan apartments were priced at the upper end of the scale for the capital, where lower oil prices and a property slow down in nearby Dubai are prompting caution among investors.

“There is an appetite for beachfront apartments still, but still the pricing seems to be more expensive than most apartments in Abu Dhabi and on a par with built apartments in developments such as Al Muneera on Raha Beach,” said Ben Crompton, the managing partner at Crompton Partners.

“Aldar has recently been very successful in selling off-plan at recent developments, but we are seeing that some of the guys who bought off-plan apartments at developments such as Ansam are now finding it hard to re-sell on the secondary market.

“If you buy off plan, you really have to be pretty sure that prices will be higher three years down the line, and at the moment that is not a given.”

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