RAK Properties profit up 2.7% to Dh160 million in 2015

RAK Properties spent the second half of the year completing and starting to hand over a first phase of its 104-unit Flamingo Villas in Mina Al Arab.

Net profit at RAK Properties, the developer backed by the Ras Al Khaimah government, increased by 2.7 per cent last year.

The Abu Dhabi-listed company on Wednesday posted a net profit of Dh160 million for 2015, up from Dh155.7m the previous year as it handed over villas at its Dh10 billion Mina Al Arab complex on the Ras Al Khaimah coastline.

Revenues grew by 23 per cent in 2015, RAK said, increasing to Dh367.8m from Dh297.8m a year earlier. The news sent company shares up by 14.3 per cent yesterday to close at 56 fils.

RAK Properties, which has assets of Dh4.7bn, spent the second half of the year completing and starting to hand over a first phase of its 104-unit Flamingo Villas in Mina Al Arab.

A second phase of 57 Flamingo villas was launched in May.

RAK Properties launched Mina Al Arab, a housing complex spread over 43 million square feet, in May 2006.

The news comes after RAK in July posted a 56 per cent drop in profit for the first half of the year on the back of lower sales.

Property brokers report that the real estate markets in all of the UAE’s Northern Emirates slowed at the end of last year as Dubai’s property slump and the effect of low oil prices hit sales.

“The overall negative sentiment in the Dubai market has affected sales in the Northern Emirates, which remained slow,” said John Stevens, the managing director of the real estate services company Asteco.

“This was especially evident in Ras Al Khaimah, which historically benefited from good levels of demand for its master-planned developments as they were considered a better value for money option compared with Dubai.”

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