The first homes to be built around the planned Louvre, Guggenheim and Zayed National museums on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island are to go on sale at Cityscape next week.
Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), the government-owned developer of cultural and residential projects in the capital, plans to showcase its new Mamsha Al Saadiyat project, comprising 461 luxury beachside homes at the Cityscape Global property show in Dubai on Sunday.
TDIC said it would be marketing a first phase of homes at the exhibition after revealing plans for the project to The National a year ago.
With Abu Dhabi’s Louvre museum scheduled to open next year, followed by the Zayed National Museum in 2016 and the Guggenheim museum in 2017, the master developer TDIC said it was pressing ahead with plans to build 414 apartments and 47 town houses along 1.4 kilometres of beach close by.
Mamsha Al Saadiyat, which means “Happiness Walk” will be located close to the 550-store luxury shopping mall TDIC is jointly developing with L Real Estate, a property development and investment fund sponsored by Louis Vuitton.
All buildings will also include shops on the ground floor level as well as swimming pool terraces. Homes will range in size from 106 square metres to 454 sq metres. The project is expected to be completed in 2017.
TDIC declined to give any information about how much the new apartments and town houses would cost but added that the information would be made available at the property show next week.
It is understood that the developer will not sell the properties directly at its stand but will invite interested purchasers to register online to attend a sales launch at a separate event after the exhibition. Sales for the first phase will take in two stages, with a first sale being held exclusively for UAE nationals.
The complete project, which will be developed in phases, will also encompass a serviced-apartment building and a 5,000 sq metres shopping and dining area. Plans for the overall development include nine low-rise residential buildings.
It will also include health clubs, dedicated pedestrian and cycle lanes and a headland park located at the western end of the beachfront walk overlooking the Guggenheim.
“Mamsha Al Saadiyat will further enhance the appeal of both, the Cultural District and Saadiyat as a whole, as a one-of-a-kind development, both regionally and internationally,” said Ali Al Hammadi, TDIC’s chief executive.
Last year TDIC, which is developing the entire 27 sq kilometre island, said it was also looking to sell off packages of land in the neighbourhood to sub-developers to build housing, offices and schools.
The launch comes at a time when house prices for the most expensive homes in the UAE have slowed significantly as new mortgage caps restricting the amount of money that purchasers can borrow against their properties have come into effect.
“We have seen a marked slowdown for the top end of the market in Dubai and that is starting to be felt in Abu Dhabi too,” said Paul Maisfield, the chief executive of MPM Properties, the property arm of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.
“However, we are still very positive about the latest TDIC launch. There is an undersupply of good quality stock in Abu Dhabi and for well-paid executives who want a good quality of life Saadiyat is one of a very few options,” he added.
“Off-plan sales in Abu Dhabi by Aldar earlier this year sold exceptionally well and the lack of good quality projects in the capital means that the demand is still there.”
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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