Masdar To Delay Final Completion Until At Least 2020

Final completion of Masdar City, the carbon-neutral development being built just outside Abu Dhabi, will be delayed until at least 2020, four years after its original deadline.

In an emailed statement released to Dow Jones, the government-backed renewable energy company said the city’s first phase would now be completed in 2015. It also stated that completion on the site would not take place until between 2020 and 2025.

Masdar also added that it may also bring in renewable power from external sources, contrary to its initial plan to use only onsite resources.

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Jumeirah Lakes Towers 60% Complete

About 60 per cent of the Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) development has been completed, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), the community's master developer and operator, said on Monday.

This milestone was achieved after Armada Group, a sub-developer, completed the third tower in its mixed-use cluster.

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Service Fee Defaulters Face Losing Their Homes

Dubai homeowners who have failed to pay off the service fee will now have to wash their hands off from their property.

The Dubai Land Department will repossess and auction off the homes of those who fail to pay maintenance fees as part of the emirate’s new strata law, according to an official notice issued yesterday.

As developers hand over the maintenance of shared buildings and communities to homeowners associations, hundreds of owners who owe thousands of dirhams in service charges risk losing their properties.


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Egypt’s Amer Group Invites GCC Investors

Egypt’s leading developer and operator of luxury destination resorts, the Amer Group, has launched a special ‘Triple 10 Offer’ for GCC and Middle Eastern investors to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. The unique offer provides customers with the opportunity to own an apartment at the Group’s flagship resorts – ‘Porto Marina’ and ‘Porto Golf Marina’ by paying only ten per cent in advance with the outstanding balance paid over ten quarterly installments. The third aspect of the offer is ten days free accommodation at the Porto World Egyptian resort of the purchaser’s choice. Real Estate prices at the resort start from US$255,000.

Porto Marina is Egypt’s premier destination resort, providing 885 luxurious homes, a 379 room 5-star standard hotel, shops, restaurants, cinema, health spa, gymnasium, marina and private beach.

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House prices on Palm Jumeirah sink to three year low

Since the start of the property crash in late 2008, prices have now fallen by nearly 70 percent in some parts of the Palm, though across the development the average drop is believed to be closer to 40 percent.

In May this year the Arabian Business Think Tank forecast that prices on the Palm Jumeirah will plummet another 20 percent in the next year. It predicted that average prices for an apartment on Nakheel's man-made island will fall to just AED1,022 per square foot by May 2011.

Meanwhile the latest data from real estate consultancy Colliers said that house prices across Dubai fell by four percent in the second quarter, according to the latest data from real estate consultancy Colliers.

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Dubai Municipality To Use RERA Index

Dubai Municipality has come up with a new set of rules for the house owners of Dubai. The owners will now have to pay 5% Dubai Municipality (DM) housing fee, even if the property is vacant, provided there is a DEWA connection.

The Dubai Municipality has also mentioned that it is not ready to withstand any kind of cheating the residents are showcasing by listing rents which are very much below the prevailing market rates for the specific region. According to municipality, it will be forced to use RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, rent index if any kind of malpractice is witnessed.

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Jumeirah To Manage Egyptian Luxury Resort

Dubai-based luxury hospitality firm, Jumeriah Group, has disclosed on Monday, 02.08.2010, that it will be overseeing a new deluxe resort located in Egypt. The luxury hospitality organization has mentioned that a deal has been struck with Egypt’s leading development company, Palm Hills Development for the management of Jumeirah Gamsha Bay Resort. The Jumeriah Resort is situated in the Palm Gamsha resort constructed by PHD on Red Sea, Egypt.

Jumeriah will be managing 250-room multi-purpose hotel of Palm Gamsha. It is a comprehensive community and has 20 artificial islands designed as a sea horse. The resort is situated to the north west of Hurghada airport at a distance of 47 km.

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REIDIN.com index reveals 6.99% increase in Dubai villa sales price between Q2 2009 and Q2 2010

REIDIN.com, the leading real estate information company covering emerging markets has today announced the June figures of its Sales Price Index for Dubai (SPID) part of its INDEXFocus-UAE product, an online database of proprietary real estate indices for UAE designed to accurately track price fluctuations in the residential real estate market.

INDEXFocus is a service dedicated to providing real estate indicies and other benchmark data. Sales Price Index for Dubai (SPID) is launched by REIDIN.com based on the actual transactions in an exclusive partnership with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) and the Dubai Land Department (DLD). The service provides the Dubai market with a series of indices and data sets that can help improve transparency across the market and help real estate professionals to benchmark and analyse residential price trends.

Power and water cut from 1,654 Dubai homes in H1

Nearly 4,400 houses in Dubai have been found violating building and construction rules during the first half of 2010 as part of the One Villa, One Family campaign, a senior official has said. Omar AbdulRahman, head of Building Inspection Section at Dubai Municipality, said that 40,707 houses in Dubai had been inspected since start of the initiative aimed at reducing overcrowding in properties in the emirate.

AbdulRahman said about 1,654 houses had had its power and water cut off as a result of violations. He added that surprise visits in coordination with various government departments would continue and fines would be imposed. He said violations included bachelors staying in family areas, and multiple families staying in one house.

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The Nation Investor Planning Two Private Equity Deals

Abu Dhabi-based investment service provider, The National Investor, has plans for closing two “substantial” private equity deals by 2010 end. “We have capital to invest; we generally do about two deals a year and we will do the same this year”, said the TNI private equity director Yahya Jalil.

He also mentioned that TNI was honing on ‘something substantial’ at present, but declined to disclose the details of the massive transactions.

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Drake & Scull Wins Dohaland Flagship Cooling Project

The 182-million-Qatari-riyal worth design and development contract for the two cooling plants at Dohaland’s Musheireb project has been awarded to Drake & Scull International’s arm, Drake & Scull Water and Power. The firm will be responsible for the comprehensive design and development of these cooling plants which have cooling towers and chiller plants. The district cooling has a refrigeration capacity of 29,250 tonnes.

According to Mohammad Masoud Al Merri, Director-Projects, Dohaland, “We are delighted to award the design and build contract to Drake and Scull for the district cooling plants for the Musheireb project”. According to the contract, the designing and building of hilled water reticulation network having valves and valve chambers, the mechanical electrical and plumbing services, testing and commissioning of the plants will all be taken care of by Drake & Scull.

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Dubai Properties Group Sees Surge in Demand Following Leasing Campaign

Dubai Properties Group (DPG), a member of Dubai Holding, today announced a significant increase in demand for its built-to-lease communities throughout Dubai as UAE residents opt for quality and location at excellent value for money.

The increased demand is the direct result of DPG’s comprehensive six-week-long campaign to promote its built-to-lease communities across Dubai. DPG has received thousands of calls each week driving hundreds of visits to the community’s site offices daily. The comprehensive campaign was rolled out earlier this month across various marketing channels including the radio, print, digital, online and outdoor platforms.

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Dubai Rental Index Being Revamped

The Land Department of Dubai is working on revamping the rental index, making it more comprehensive. As of Monday, the rent increase calculator on the Real Estate Regulatory Agency’s (Rera) website was not showing the requisite calculations from July 1 onwards with an alert saying, “no rental index available for the selected date”.

The first rent index in Dubai was released in January 2009, complied on the basis of rents during the second half of 2008. Rera says it is not mandatory for landlords to follow the rent index but it is just a guideline or a reference point in case of disputes.

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Saadiyat Beach Apartment Construction Gets A Nod

The first phase of Saadiyat Beach Apartments will soon kick off as The Tourism Development and Investment Company, which is the prime constructor of tourism, cultural, and residential destinations in Abu Dhabi, has assigned the development work to Abu Dhabi-based Dhabi Contracting Establishment. About 495 apartments will be constructed in the first phase.

Located in the centre of a Saadiyat Beach community, the plans have been deciphered with Arabian and Mediterranean elements. The first phase is expected to be ready by 2011 Q4.

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Luxurious Bahrain Properties Facing Price Fall

Asking prices for high-end apartments in Bahrain have dropped 20 per cent compared to 2009 as sales of freehold villas and apartments remain almost non-existent over the last two years, Knight Frank, the global real estate consultancy, said.
Sales of freehold villas and apartments have been almost non-existent in Bahrain over the last two years, which is indicative of the fact that investors are wary in these uncertain economic times and owner occupier demand for luxury property appears to have been satisfied at least in the short term, the report said. Also, the boom times of speculative purchasers enjoying healthy returns on investments by flipping off-plan properties for a profit are a distant phenomenon.
As many of the mixed-use schemes are experiencing construction delays, investors looking to generate rental returns on completed projects are similarly staying away.

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Dubai is still a key investor’s destination

A report from Moody's Investment Service asks the investors to be optimistic about Dubai and reap out of the lower property costs in the city as it still is one among the most preferred investment choices of investors. According to Faisal Hijazi, Business Development Manager, Rating Services and Islamic Finance at Moody's Dubai, revamping Dubai is not an easy and short process. The investors should keep this in mind and then invest in the city.
"But I think the investors should now take advantage of the available opportunities, which are numerous. Dubai still enjoys a good position in this respect and I think there are good investment opportunities in some sectors," Hijazi said.

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Arabtec awarded AED 500m contract to build DAMAC Heights at Dubai Marina

DAMAC Properties has announced that it has awarded the main construction contract for its DAMAC Heights project at Dubai Marina to Arabtec. The AED 500million contract was signed this week and work is expected to commence on site as soon as Zetas complete the enabling works.
DAMAC Heights will be one of the company’s most iconic supertall projects and will occupy a prime position overlooking the Palm Jumeirah. It is within walking distance of another of DAMAC’s flagship projects, Ocean Heights, also being constructed by Arabtec. Work on Ocean Heights is due to be completed later this year.
In announcing the contract award, Chairman of DAMAC Properties Hussain Sajwani said: ‘We are delighted to announce that main construction work will be underway soon at one of our most significant projects in Dubai. We are pleased to work once again with Arabtec who are known for their ability to deliver architecturally challenging buildings and their consistent and solid reputation in the construction industry.

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Nakheel Developer won’t hike deposit fee for new sales

Master developer Nakheel continues to consolidate its project portfolio though has denied any raise in non-refundable deposit amount for new sales reservation contracts. This counters reports within the industry that Nakheel had stopped consolidation offers while it has increased the non-refundable deposit by five times of new contracts.
As per sources, Nakheel will determine projects that will remain on hold towards the end of the re-capitalisation process. "Projects have been prioritised following an assessment of construction stages, cost of completion, customer collections, and market supply and demand. We will have determined, which projects are likely to remain on hold towards the end of the recapitalisation process," the spokesperson said.

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Majid Al Futtaim Properties to invest $3.5bn in four new shopping malls

Majid Al Futtaim Properties, the region's premier developer of leisure property and shopping malls, announced its plan to develop four new shopping malls in the UAE, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. The four new shopping malls represent a total investment by Majid Al Futtaim Properties of $3.5bn over the next 5 years.
Majid Al Futtaim Properties is currently operating 10 malls across the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA") region, which have a combined Gross Leasable Area ("GLA") of 800,000 square metres and which, in 2009, attracted more than 120 million visitors. The four new shopping malls are scheduled for completion by 2014 and will increase Majid Al Futtaim Properties' total GLA to more than 1.3 million square metres.
The announcement was made on the opening day of RECon Middle East & North Africa 2010, the region's major exhibition and conference for retailers and real estate professionals that runs from 2-4 May 2010 at Jumeirah Beach Hotel Convention Centre.

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40% of Dubai Rent dispute cases solved in 2009

Dubai Rent Committee had announced a drop in rent dispute cases in Dubai this year compared to previous year. About 40% drop has been registered this year. A total of 5,373 Rent dispute cases were registered in Dubai in 2009 against 9,000 cases in 2008.
This year Q1 had 1,119 rent disputes resolved. The first quarter of 2010 witnessed 943 rent dispute cases in Dubai opposed to 2,003 cases in 2009 and 1,635 cases in 2008 during the same period. But there was an increase in the total number of rent dispute cases resolved in 2009 by 10 per cent. As per the committee 6,737 cases were resolved in 2009, while the committee resolved 6,069 cases in the previous year. In the first quarter of this year alone, Dubai resolved 1,119 rent dispute cases. A decline in the new rent cases is mainly due to the fact that more people are now adhering to their rent contracts. People are understanding the law and abiding by their contracts. The main reason for the dispute pertains to landlords or tenants breaching their rental contracts.

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