Tamouh secures Dh600m loan for Horizon Towers on Reem Island

City of Lights is a 144 acre, mixed-use project that is eventually due to house a total of 60 towers – eight commercial and 52 residential, which will house more than 27,00 residents once complete.

The Abu Dhabi-based developer Tamouh Investments has secured a new Dh600 million loan to help fund the completion of its Horizon Towers project at the City of Lights development on Reem Island.

A statement yesterday, from its advisors Macquarie Capital Middle East, said the financing was for the project’s final phase. It involves the construction of a pair of towers that will contain a series of one- to three-bedroom apartments, retail outlets, a swimming pool, spa, gym, kids’ club and other facilities.

Tower A will be 57 storeys high and tower B 38 storeys. Both will sit on top of a six-storey podium. The project was launched in April this year at Cityscape Abu Dhabi and is due for completion in March 2017.

City of Lights is a 144-acre, mixed-use project that will eventually house 60 towers – eight commercial and 52 residential, accommodating more than 27,000 residents once completed. Tamouh is developing 17 of the towers and has worked on seven of them to date.

The first, the 56-storey LX office tower, was handed over this year. Five more are being built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation under a US$436m contract, which was initially awarded in 2009.

The seven-year funding package for Horizon Towers has been provided by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

Macquarie and the law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner advised Tamouh on the financing. White and Case advised the lenders.

Wissam Moukahal, Macquarie’s executive chairman, said the deal demonstrated the bank’s appetite for “well-structured deals with credit-worthy counterparties”.

According to the property listings website Bayut.com, Al Reem Island remains Abu Dhabi’s most popular location for searches by both buyers and renters. The number of searches for rental properties in the area jumped by 21 per cent month-on-month in September. The number of searches by buyers climbed by 3 per cent.

In its third-quarter property report for Abu Dhabi, CBRE said the market had fragmented, with rents in older areas experiencing declines, but master planned areas such as Reem Island remaining popular – particularly among expatriates.

“Prime developments across the capital have shown greater resilience to the emergence of more challenging market conditions during the quarter,” said CBRE’s UAE head of research and consultancy Matthew Green.

“This is reflected in the widening rental gap, as rentals for new leases remain unchanged from the previous quarter despite the prevailing market conditions.”

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