Commenting on the handover, Mohammed Nimer, CEO of MAG Group Property Development, said: “We have maintained a consistent vision, communicating transparently. We have stood by our strategy through thick and thin which has underscored our commitment to our customers and our confidence in delivering our promise.”

Almost 90% of MAG 218 tower was sold out within months of its 2006 launch, with many investors initially paying an average of AED750,000 – 850,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. Today, despite falling prices over the past two years, the apartments have still appreciated, on average by at least 10%. Indeed competitive rental returns can be achieved due to the realistic original selling price.

Due to MAG Group’s strategic pricing, more than 70% of the owners are end users clearly keeping speculators at bay. The typical profile of residents consists of young professionals in their early thirties and to date MAG Group has not received any cancellations whatsoever.

“So far we have not received any notices’ of cancellation, which in the current climate is quite remarkable. However it does highlight the sustainable demand for quality mid-priced accommodation,” said Nimer.

In terms of service fees, again through MAGme the property management arm of MAG Group, rates are very competitive at less than AED10 per square foot per annum.

“This which compares favourably with other developments in the vicinity,” said Nimer.

Full-floor show-apartments located on the first floor of the MAG 218 Tower were opened in June 2008, so that owners could check out the quality of the interior finish, plus other interior fittings such as lights, built-in kitchen units & white goods, wardrobes and bathroom fixtures.

“Frequent online photo-updates were also posted on to the MAG Group website to further reassure overseas investors,” added Nimer.

The tower, which comprises 333 one-bedroom apartments and 222 two-bedroom apartments and six retail outlets, comes complete with 572 covered car parking spaces and an outdoor Olympic sized swimming pool. The top five floors feature a full glass exterior, which afford spectacular panoramic views of the Marina, Palm Jumeirah and beyond.

A dedicated recreational facilities and community floor houses a state-of-the-art gym, event and dining hall, TV room and an outdoor terrace.

The residential tower is strategically located close to all of the facilities in Dubai Marina and only five minutes’ walk from Dubai’s Internet City and Media City. The tower also forms an integral part of MAG Group’s development strategy to construct competitively priced buildings aimed at the mid-range market and appealing to Dubai’s middle income families.

Imre Solt

Nakheel recently received US$9bn (Dh33bn) from the Dubai Government to revive stalled projects and settle debt, and have now announced more options to investors in long-term projects, such as Palm Jebel Ali.

Options

The options outlined by Nakheel are:

• Staying in the project
• Swapping into near-term projects
• Consolidating into other owned properties
• Consolidating into a third-party property
• Receiving credit that will be useable against any property at anytime and redeemable in five years

History

The debate began late 2009 when Nakheel offered buyers of waterfront homes on Palm Jebel Ali alternatives in Jumeirah Heights and Al Furjan. The buyers declined these offers, saying the options were “inadequate and not acceptable”, and said they would hire a law firm to represent them.

Property prices for a villa on Palm Jebel Ali plunged from  $4.35m to $2.45m in just two months when the financial crisis hit the artifical island in second half of 2008. The project was launched in 2003, but came to a halt in 2008 and on April 10 this year investors will meet in London to sketch up a plan how to put pressure on the project.

The National

However, despite the ‘Strata Law’ being in place for almost a year, few associations exist in the emirate. Instead, home owners in areas such as Discovery Gardens, The Palm Jumeirah and Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) have taken to organising unofficial committees to battle recent hikes in maintenance costs.

In JBR, maintenance fee hikes of as much as 129 per cent have hit owners. An apartment owner, Cecilia Reinaldo, is behind the efforts to organise a committee to fight the increases.

“When we moved in we were shown a brochure which promised five beach clubs and a beach park but it’s been a year and we haven’t seen them,” she said. “I don’t know where this money is going.”

She added that the contract said that as soon as the first building was registered with Dubai Land Department, an owners’ association should be set up to look at how the maintenance fees were being spent. However none has been formed.

“Some of the people I spoke to said they wished they’d have rented, instead of buying the property,” she said. “If they go up across the board then demand for properties will fall further.”

A spokesman for Dubai Properties was unavailable for comment. However, RERA CEO Marwan bin Ghalita confirmed to Khaleej Times that Dubai Properties had already sought out RERA for talks about setting up an owners’ association. Acting on behalf of Dubai Properties, Salwan Property Management sent out a notice to residents informing them that maintenance fees would rise from Dh9.5 per square foot to Dh21.75 per square foot.

Vincent Easton, sales manager at Sherwoods said: “These properties have been subsidised for a while now and I expect we are seeing the real price. Dh9.5 per square feet is quite cheap.”

Coupled with delays on moving in, residents of Discovery Gardens have had large maintenance fees sprung upon them without being forewarned.

Neil Whittaker, who was due to move into the property in June, but wasn’t handed the keys until November, said that he was asked to hand over a sum of Dh45,000 before he could move in. The bill included maintenance charges of Dh15,894 as well as community service fees and other charges.

“Nobody told us about these charges,” he said. “Nobody has told us how they got these figures; what it’s based on; if it’s market rate; if they are annual; if they will stay at this rate year after year. Nothing. I foresee many a fight with Nakheel about it but we have the house now and we are moving in.”“For a limited number of properties at Discovery Gardens, it was necessary to revise completion dates,” said a spokesman for Nakheel. “This was due to circumstances beyond our control.

“For all of Nakheel’s developments, each year’s service charges are budgeted according to the projected costs, and all accounts are independently audited to ensure accuracy and transparency for homeowners.”

Meanwhile, Palm Jumeirah residents have fought back against Nakheel’s plans to increase maintenance fees by as much as 40 per cent.

However, third parties not involved in the dispute said that Nakheel had been -on the whole- responsive to residents’ concerns. No one from the owners’ committee that is involved in negotiations was willing to comment to the Press.

Khaleej Times

This week it was announced the 33-year-old from Essex is putting his name to a number of projects here. He is designing the kitchens for all the properties in the Water neighbourhood at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

In addition he is opening two restaurants – a branch of Jamie’s Italian and a barbecue-themed outlet – at the Leisurecorp development and a takeaway venture called Grab and Go is on the way too. “Over the next two years I will be back and forth to Dubai,” Oliver tells Emirates Business.

“The Jumeirah Golf Estates project is not just brand-slapping – all the partnerships I have been involved with have been longstanding.”

Jamie’s Italian has already proved successful in the UK despite the economic downturn.

There are branches in Oxford and Bath and a third is due to open in Kingston, Surrey, next month. And in true Oliver style he is going to be keeping things unpretentious.

“You can go for a meal with drinks for £18 to £21 (Dh113 to Dh132),” he says. “Jamie’s Italian in Dubai, will offer casual dining with brilliant, authentic Italian food.”

Customers will be able to buy ready-made meals, cookery DVDs and ingredients and hire kitchen equipment and recipe books at Grab and Go.

“There might be a lot of money in this part of the world but the point is it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are if you do not know how to nourish yourself,” he adds.

“The Dubai project is going to create something unique from the roots up. I am going to spend two-and-a-half years on it, so it’s not just another project.

“I want to help create a food culture here and grow many ingredients myself. Leisurecorp is more than just about cash, they really want to create something special, which is why I am here. This is a chance of a lifetime for me. I don’t know how much money I’m getting but they’ve said there is no limit on what I can spend, which is great and means I can be creative.”

Oliver and wife Jools recently announced that another child is on the way to join their two daughters Poppy Honey, six, and Daisy Boo, five. “Our third child is due in March. A good thing about Dubai is that I have finally found a place where I can spend time with my family without being hassled.”

Oliver shot to fame in 1997 when he appeared in a TV documentary about London’s River Café. He was soon offered his own TV show, The Naked Chef, which became a worldwide hit and is currently being aired on Showtime.

He went on to write 11 best-selling books and his programmes have been broadcast in 50 countries and translated into 26 languages. He promotes the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the UK and in 2003 was awarded an MBE for his contribution to the hospitality industry.

But despite being one of the wealthiest chefs in Britain with a estimated value of £40 million (Dh256m) according to the Sunday Times Rich List where he is positioned 1,794, the young chef uses his money to help others.

In 2001 he opened Fifteen, a training restaurant for youngsters who are not in full-time education or employment.

The Fifteen Foundation charity continues its work today and recently recruited the sixth year of students for training.

“I put all my life savings into Fifteen and my old man said, ‘Don’t do it.’ But now we have four and they are all profitable. I give up a lot of my time doing things for other people and believe this is the right thing to do.

“I have sold 22 million books so I have cash to do things like this.”

Oliver has become a champion of the healthy eating campaign in the UK where his TV series’ Jamie’s School Dinners pushed the government into improving meals and his latest show, Jamie’s Ministry of Food currently being screened in the UK, is causing controversy. “When you are in a trade like mine and you see some of the things people eat you get angry,” says Oliver, who himself admits to liking the odd unhealthy snack. “I never wanted to get political but I pay British taxes and am proud to do so but I also care what happens to the money.

“In School Dinners we had four health ministers leave their jobs. I do tend to show things up. It’s about proper food.

“People think I am all ‘healthy food, healthy food’ but that’s not the case. If you look at my recipes some of them are unhealthy but it’s about good food and a balanced diet. The massive problem in the UK is that people focus too much on a small variety of foods and are not getting the balance right.

“In School Dinners we showed that the impact of a balanced diet improved kid’s attainment levels by seven to 10 per cent. Imagine being in charge of this and being able to make your kids cleverer.”

Oliver says he felt a burden of responsibility as a chef to educate the public about nutrition and healthy eating. He admits: “I have just spent a year doing Ministry of Food and it has been really tough, but I see it as my job. Sometimes I think I’d love to be in Thailand learning how to make stir-fries but I’m not and that’s because I feel a level of responsibility to help.

“What chefs do is really important and we should use that as a platform. I try to get people away from convenience food and high fat food by making cooking fun.”

Oliver inherited his love of cooking from his father, Trevor, who still runs the same restaurant in Essex.

“I grew up in a family business, and helped out in the kitchen.

“I love the cooking industry with a passion, it has great people and great prospects.

“I never thought I’d be doing what I am, but I knew I would make myself good at what I did because I have high standards.”

Jamie’s millions

In the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List Jamie Oliver was ranked 1,794 with an estimated worth of £40m.

As his success has grown, he has expanded his business interests, investing in new media ventures, property and food companies. He also has a significant income from advertising, which includes being the face of Sainsbury’s supermarket, a deal worth an estimated £1.2 million a year.

He has sold 22 million books worldwide and also promotes Tefal and Typhoon kitchen equipment.

Oliver has appeared on many TV programmes and his own production company, Fresh One Productions, now makes the majority of shows, earning him enough money to plough back into the next one.

Oliver’s holding company, Sweet as Candy, is worth an estimated £25m which includes income from international sales of his books, his television shows and cookware, as well as property investments.

In 2005 he was named as one of the richest people under 30 in the UK.

Emirates Business

Three designs have been drawn up for the planned Jumeirah Garden City project, with the most breathtaking being a 2.4km-high edifice called the Dubai City Tower.

Renderings of the Dubai City Tower show six separate buildings twisting into a single structure dubbed a “vertical city”, capped by a 400-metre “energy-producing spire”.
“The Dubai City Tower pushes every edge of building design,” says the design proposal, which is circulating on the internet.

“For centuries man has pushed construction toward the heavens. The sheer scale of this project will focus the world’s eye towards the city of Dubai, but it will be the tower’s design and image that will preserve Dubai City Tower’s grandeur into the future.”

Meraas, the property developer and private equity fund of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is behind the project, according to a consultant for the company and a developer familiar with the plans.
The Dubai City Tower would dwarf the Burj Dubai, which reached 688 metres earlier this month. Emaar, the developer of the Burj Dubai, has kept the final height secret in part to prevent other developers from announcing taller projects.

The design prospectus for the Dubai City Tower, which does not list its developer or architect, shows the tower looming over the waterfront, near a marina.

It would have 400 storeys with each set of 100 storeys forming a “neighbourhood” and a Sky Plaza operating as a “town centre”. A vertical bullet train would ferry people from one “neighbourhood” to another.
The building would be fitted with solar panels and wind turbines, and biospheres that double as recreational parks and water purification centres.

Carol Willis, the director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York and a professor of urban studies at Columbia University, said the project appeared “buildable in technical terms” but economically difficult to justify.

Alastair Collins, of the international Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, said that height was the easy part with skyscrapers.
“The hardest part is the servicing of the height: the transportation, power, water and waste disposal,” he said, adding that such a tower would also produce swarms of traffic.

Another of the plans for the Jumeirah Garden City project includes designs for a building called the Atrium City Towers, which would incorporate three tall towers and was designed by architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. Mr Smith also designed the Burj Dubai.
A spokesman for Meraas declined to comment on the designs, but said the company would reveal its plans at Cityscape Dubai on Oct 6. An advertisement for Meraas on the Cityscape website hints at a design similar to the Atrium project.

“They are seeking to create a standout building in that location, which is otherwise going to be really low-level,” the consultant said. “It will have the best quality hotels and commercial space in the heart of what is going to be a predominantly residential area with gardens.”

Meraas was created in 2007 and gained attention this year when it joined a coalition of investors that financed Boston Properties’ purchase of the General Motors building in New York for US$2.8 billion (Dh10.28bn). It was the most expensive office building sale in American history.

Jumeirah Garden City will be located in two districts, Satwa and Al Wasl, that are being razed to make way for the new development. The project includes a canal system and several iconic buildings.
“Sheikh Mohammed likes competition,” a consultant familiar with the company said. “He wants to add another layer to the other government-backed developers to challenge Sama, DP World and Nakheel.”

The company has also been hiring veterans in the Dubai market, including Binod Shankar, the former chief financial officer of Dubai Waterfront Corporation; Rashid Doleh, the former chief executive of Emaar Malls Group; and Vivek Rao, the former head of finance at Tamweel.
A mile-high tower is planned by Kingdom Holdings for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also has a 1km tower in the works. Nakheel, another Dubai developer, is expected to announce a tower to rise higher than 1km in Al Burj, according to published reports.

The National

The main parts of the project are: Atlantis, Trump International Hotel and Tower, village center and the village center marina, the fronds, the shoreline marina and the cresent. Palm Jumeirah has doubled Dubai’s existing coastline and will also double the number of beachfront hotels in the city.

Two airplanes have been sunk in order to create an artifical reef to encourage marine life and a monorail is being built to transport people to the island. It is expected to welcome 20,000 visitors a day.

Emirates Office tower is 54 floors tall while the Emirates Hotel is 56 floors, despite containing 2 more floors, the emirates hotel is shorter in height than the emirates office tower, because the ceilings in the office tower were made higher.

Construction of the towers was finished in november 1999, and the hotel contains 12 exclusive restaurants, bars and lounges.

Jumeirah Emirates Hotel accommodates up to 600 people and the prices range from 990 dhs to 1,790 dhs which is very cheap for a hotel of this reputation and high quality service.