Damac to branch out in hotel apartment management

Damac Properties is to set up a second hotel apartment management company to maintain 2,200 serviced apartments it is developing across Dubai this year.

Damac, which raised US$348 million in a share sale in London five months ago, said that the new management company, Naia, will eventually manage more than 3,800 Damac developed serviced apartments as the company increases its total serviced apartment portfolio in the region to about 10,000.

It will operate alongside Damac’s existing luxury serviced hotel apartment operator Damac Maison Hotels and Hotel Apartments which opened its first block of 355 serviced apartments at Damac Maison Dubai Mall Street close to Burj Khalifa on New Year’s Eve.

Naia, which is Hindi for "new" and Arabic for a "small deal", will be targeted at a younger, trendier clientele than the company's existing Damac Maison brand, the Damac managing director Ziad El Chaar told The National. However, he added that prices for the two brands would be similar, depending on location.

“We are launching Naia really out of necessity,” Mr El Chaar said. “The scale of this operation is very large with an ultimate total of 10,000 keys, 50 per cent of which are likely to be rented out by owners through our rental pools. We believe that we need a coefficient of two employees per hotel apartment. The two brands will be run by separate teams.”

Mr El Chaar added that the operators would be run at cost by the developer to keep ownership costs low for owners in the hope of tempting more purchasers to buy high premium serviced apartments.

Naia will manage a portfolio including two schemes launched before the global financial crisis: the 17-storey Naia Downtown Jebel Ali (formerly known as Suburbia), which will begin operations this month and 800 homes at the company’s Miracle Garden project in Dubailand.

It will also manage Damac’s two new projects at Dubai World Central close to the Expo 2020 site; its 10-storey, 270-apartment Tenora block and its 900-key Celestia as well as Damac apartments at its Akoya golf course scheme, Jumeirah Village and Business Bay.

Last month Damac issued a $650m five-year senior unsecured sukuk, maturing in April 2019 at a profit rate of 4.97 per cent which were listed on the Nasdaq Dubai and the Irish Stock Exchange.

Damac said that the cash would be used to fund land purchases but declined to say whether this would be for further serviced apartment schemes.

Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing statistics show that Dubai currently has an inventory of 87,000 rooms – a number which needs to rise to about 150,000 rooms to service the anticipated 20 million tourists expected to flock to Expo 2020.

According to HotStats, occupancy rates for hotels in Dubai climbed to 88.4 per cent in March 2014 with average room rates at just under Dh1,500 per night. The report added: "The Dubai hotel market continues to grow at an impressive rate, with average rates in the first quarter of 2014 increasing 5.6 per cent to $389.99."

lbarnard@thenational.ae

UAE squad to face Ireland

Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri (vice-captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad, Zawar Farid, CP Rizwaan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Basil Hameed, Kashif Daud, Adithya Shetty, Vriitya Aravind

The Bio

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How will Gen Alpha invest?

Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.

“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.

Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.

He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.

Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”

Business Insights

As per the document, there are six filing options, including choosing to report on a realisation basis and transitional rules for pre-tax period gains or losses.
SMEs with revenue below Dh3 million per annum can opt for transitional relief until 2026, treating them as having no taxable income.
Larger entities have specific provisions for asset and liability movements, business restructuring, and handling foreign permanent establishments.

The five stages of early child’s play

From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:

1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.

2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.

3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.

4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.

5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.