Archive for December, 2008
Aldar and Sorouh tie up with RAKBank
Aldar and Sorouh Real Estate have signed agreements with RAKBank to launch a mortgage finance service. The agreement offers up to 90% mortgage finance and a 25-year loan tenure for a large number of existing and upcoming properties in Abu Dhabi. Projects include Al Raha Beach and Yas Island by Aldar, as well as Sorouh's [...]
Damac development reaches 30 floors
Damac Properties has completed 30 floors of its Ocean Heights tower development at Dubai Marina. One floor is completed every 5.2 days, the developer said. The 84-storey skyscraper is being built by Arabtec. Ocean Heights will eventually have 680 apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms.
Emaar Economic City to hand over residential units by Q1 2009
Emaar Economic City, the Saudi Arabian unit of Dubai's Emaar Properties, plans to hand over the first residential units to the owners in March, said Chief Executive Officer Fahd Al Rasheed. The company, which has sold 1,000 units in the Bay La Sun Village, had planned to complete the residential properties by the end of [...]
Union Properties looks at alternative project funding
Union Properties is looking at issuing up to Dhs2.5bn ($681m) of convertible bonds. Union Properties plans to seek regulatory approval to issue the bonds to ’strategic investors’. Hamood Abdulla Al Yasi, general manager at Emirates International Securities, said selling bonds is a tool to get money and the strategic investor is entitled to an interest [...]
Job losses darken Dubai real estate sector
The real estate sector in Dubai has suffered from a major turnaround of fortunes in the past three months. From a position of seeming invulnerability in September, despite dark warnings of a future correction, the market now finds itself saturated with would-be buyers as projects are put on hold, access to funding and liquidity becomes [...]
Qatar real estate sound, says report
A market report on Qatar, released by DTZ, an international real estate advisory, predicts sustained demand across all asset classes. Top line findings predict a stable growth across residential, commercial and retail sectors. The report shows residential rents across Doha have increased on average 30% percent per annum since 2005. Prices on the Pearl have [...]
Union Properties to sell $680m convertible bond
Union Properties plans to sell convertible bonds worth Dhs2.5bn ($680m) to 'strategic investors', the Dubai-based developer said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market. The company’s board sought approval from the Emirates Securities & Commidities Authority for the bond sale.
Layoffs continue in Dubai property market
Layoffs by consultants and contractors in Dubai's real estate market are climbing, MEED has reported. Sama-ECH, the joint venture of local developer Sama Dubai and UK-based EC Harris, has laid off about 140 staff on Sama Dubai projects, and the local Al-Shafar General Contracting is making up to 1,000 redundancies, the magazine reported.
Four Cayan projects completed
Cayan Investment and Development has announced the completion of four towers out of its six towers in Dubai Marina, including its Dhs350m Dorrabay project. Handing-over process is in place with clients already receiving their keys to move in.
Best time in years to buy in Dubai?
The distressed price sales of property in Dubai this autumn has removed the price increases of the past 12 months or more, making Dubai real estate an outstanding buy. But the problem for buyers is not a lack of choice as property has flooded on to the market. It is rather the difficulty of deciding [...]