Sales at Nakheel already three times higher than last year

Apartments in Dubai make up the bulk of sales, as buyers ignore the summer heat to acquire property.

Conceptual image of Nakheel's massive Waterfront development being built along the coast on the western edge of Dubai.

The developer Nakheel, a Dubai World company, said today that property sales so far this year are already three times the total for all of last year. In the year to date, more than 6,100 Nakheel units in Dubai have been sold or reserved, with 97 per cent falling in the sales category. "This growth is not uniquely linked to Nakheel. It is very much indicative of the market," said Vincent Easton, the sales director of Sherwoods, a property consultant based in Dubai. Sales had also tripled this year, he said. "This rapid increase of business was much more driven by international investment, which I think is a direct result of what is happening in the rest of the world. "The second reason is the legislation that has been brought in, to safeguard investment, and which started with escrow." Apartment sales have made up 68 per cent of the total, with villa sales and land plot sales standing at 27 per cent and five per cent respectively. The units were released in 13 staggered launches from Jan 1 to Aug 31, mainly in Badrah Manara, which accounted for 32.2 per cent of the sales; 15.2 per cent of the sales were in the Lake District and 14.7 per cent occurred in Al Furjan. "If you compare the expansive vision of Dubai to the construction capacity constraint, which is currently around 80,000 dwellings per year, and if you believe that population growth will continue to rise by six to seven per cent per annum - a conservative estimate - then by 2020 we will still not have enough residences to meet demand," said Manal Shaheen, the director of sales, marketing and customer service. "This year's sales have even been immune to the usual summer dip in July and August." Nakheel is one of the world's largest privately held property developers. "The international reputation and recognition of the brand has grown," Mr Easton said. "People around the world recognise Palm Jumeirah; it's a landmark. They feel comfortable buying brands that Nakheel has been delivering." A further 2,650 units will be released in 11 additional sales launches this year. "Next sales later this month will include villa products on Palm Jumeirah," a spokesman said. In response to developers fears about "high-speed" speculation in the market, Nakheel recently introduced restrictions on purchases of the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Palm Jumeirah. Buyers will have to wait a year before they can sell their apartments on the secondary market. The developer claims to be providing 50 per cent of Dubai's residential supply by building homes for three million people. Its portfolio is estimated to be worth US$80 billion (Dh294bn) and, in addition to the Palm Jumeirah, includes The World and Waterfront developments off Dubai. On completion, the waterfront projects will have added more than 1,000km of shoreline to Dubai's coastline. Planned tourism projects will include up to 250 new hotels, an increase of 50 per cent on the current number in the emirate. The Palm Jumeirah alone is more than doubling the number of beachfront hotels in Dubai, with more than 30 hotels and 14,000 rooms. The number of hotel and hotel apartment guests in Dubai continues to show strong annual increases, with 500,000 more guests last year than in 2006. Nakheel said last Thursday that it planned to raise a Dh4.4bn syndicated loan to finance its property projects. The facility, which matures in January 2011, includes a conventional and an Islamic tranche, and may be funded in either dollars or dirhams. [e-mail]