Emaar launches ‘Lila’ villas at Arabian Ranches amid resurgent Dubai property market

Prospective buyers of the 219 three to five-bedroom villas can register on Emaar’s website from 8am on Wednesday before being invited to the sales event on Saturday.

A rendering of a new 'Lila' villa at Arabian Ranches in Dubai. Courtesy Emaar

Emaar Properties plans to add more than 200 villas to its Arabian Ranches development as rebounding prices encourage developers to build more houses.

The “Lila” development will feature 219 villas of three to five bedrooms in a gated community. The project is slated for handover in 2017.

“It’s good that they are launching the projects in small parcels so one does not see the whole project being built all at once,” says Craig Plumb, Head of Reasearch at Jones Lang Lasalle. “219 villas is relatively small, just one compound probably. A number of developers are using the same strategy. We all know that Arabian Ranches extension will be quite large but this is a small part of it and it is far more manageable. The projects are being launched in a piecemeal manner which is laudable.”

Prospective buyers can register on Emaar’s website from 8am on Wednesday before being invited to the sales event on Saturday.

Emaar did not respond to questions about the starting price for the villas.

“One registration of interest is applicable for one villa and for a single potential customer,” the company said.

The UAE and Dubai in particular has seen a resurgence in the housing market with prices and rents rising rapidly last year, with the pace of sales dipping towards the end of the year.

“Average capital values continued to rise by 8 per cent, albeit more slowly than the record 23 per cent growth experienced during Q2,” stated a report from Property Consultants, Cluttons. “Despite the recent gains, on average, prices are still 26 per cent below the Q3 [third quarter] 2008 market peak, although they are now 47 per cent above the bottom of the market, which was reached in Q2 2009. Year on year, values are 53 per cent up on this time last year.”

With the successful Expo 2020 bid and a renewed confidence in the market, the global property firm Jones Lang LaSalle has forecast significant levels of new residential supply planned for Dubai over the next two years with 45,000 units scheduled for completion by the end of 2015. This level of development is not expected to impact Emaar’s development plans.