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

Arzanah, Capitala’s flagship project, is a 1.4 million square metre development encompassing residential, retail, commercial, sports and leisure components. Strategically located in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque District on Abu Dhabi Island, Arzanah will offer a unique active urban lifestyle for both residents and the community at large.
Situated on the north eastern corner of Arzanah on 38,000 square metres of prime land, Rihan Heights includes five luxurious residential towers with a total of 854 apartments and 14 stunning villas on the site’s perimeter. The buildings are surrounded by luxuriant gardens and offer a range of recreational features including swimming pool, children’s playground, gym and fitness suite, clubhouse and state of the art security and management systems.

Construction on Rihan Heights, which began in late 2008, is well underway. The 20th storey of the tallest tower, which when complete will consist of 32 storeys, is expected to be completed by end of April and the facades for all five towers to be in place by late Q4 this year.

Carlos Obeid, Chairman of Capitala, said,

“Today there are 2000 construction workers on Rihan Heights site and this number will increase to 2500 in the next quarter, a fivefold increase within a single year. We are pleased with the construction progress so far and we are now focussing all our efforts to complete and deliver these premium finished residences.”

He added,

“We have also recently completed Rihan Heights show homes on the 1st floor of tower B and invite all our existing investors and potential customers to visit them. The show homes, which include the two and three-bedroom apartments, showcase the layout, finishes and expected quality for this premium residential development. They also highlight the unobstructed views onto the pristine beachfront and the spectacular Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.”

The project consists of four 22-storeys residential towers with 684 units in all.

The project is intended for middle-income professionals and will be located at the entry to Reem Island about 300 metres from Abu Dhabi Island.

The development spans a built-up area of 156,800 square metres and consists of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and eight exclusive water villas.

The waterfront Carina Views towers will be designed for middle-income professionals.

Khaleel I Al Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer at NREC, said:

“Even with the economic crisis, accommodation requirements still need to be addressed in Abu Dhabi. We decided to enter the market and target mid-income professionals to fill a gap that was very much there. We are confident in Abu Dhabi and the UAE and Carina Views is the first of many UAE projects we are embarking on.”

NREC owns and manages properties and assets throughout Kuwait, the Middle East and North Africa. Carina Views is NREC’s flagship development for Abu Dhabi and situated on the master development of Al Reem Island- Najmat, Abu Dhabi.

NREC is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange since 1984. Founded with a capital of KWD5 million (Dh63.6m), NREC has assets and capital now exceeding KD589m and KD81m.

Based in Kuwait, NREC houses subsidiaries, entities and developments that are spread throughout the region, including UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Djibouti and Libya.

Prices

According to a sales manager of Carina Views, the prices of Tower 1 are as follows:

1st floor AED 1,169/ft2 – District View – upto 7th floor AED 1,198/ft2
1st floor AED 1,230/ft2 – Full Reem View upto 7th floor AED 1,261/ft2
1st floor AED 1,279/ft2 – Ful Sea View – upto 7th floor AED 1,311/ft2

4 out of 8 Water Villas
From AED 10,500,000 (6,372 ft2) – AED 11,312,000 (6,867 ft2) incl. garden.

Payment plan
5% on signing Reservation Agreement
5% 3 months after signing RA
5% Construction milestone A (after 6 months)
10% Construction milestone B (after 12 months)
75% Final Payment – on completion

Emirates Business

Dubai Courts have now decided the agreement between Oakley and ACI for one of the units is void because the unit was never registered with the Dubai Land Department. ACI was ordered to pay back his Dh569,585 plus a 5 per cent interest rate from the day he started the court proceedings. The other unit was registered with the Land Department and was therefore protected by the law, but Mr. Oakley said he would continue the fight to claim back his remaining Dh695,000.

“It’s like throwing good money after bad, but having two units makes it worthwhile,” he said.

Mr. Oakley’s investment for the other unit remains in an escrow account, and cannot, according to the law, be paid back unless the project is officially cancelled by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory (RERA). This law also states that the money must be used to fund construction, but this also means, according to some lawyers, that developers might not have the money to refund investments if court orders are issued.

Ivory Towers was initially sold as an off-plan project in 2006 and scheduled to be finished by mid-summer 2008. More than 700 customers bought units in the project but construction came to a halt in an early phase when Sokook, the developer, got in a dispute over the land with TECOM Investments, the master developer of IMPZ.

From there, the problems piled up and Nigel Collins, an investor from the UK who bought four apartments in Ivory Tower in 2006, told The National many of the investors had given up the fight.

Sokook’s web site and offices are nearly shut down, but a consultant from Homes Real Estate, who is working on behalf of Sokook, said a “feasibility report” is to be made to summarize which investors have paid their 30 per cent and who have not.

“For people who have paid more than 30 per cent, their money is in safe hands because they won’t pay any more until we start construction again; for those who have paid less but don’t want to pay any more, we will forfeit them. Our construction is on hold because of the people who only paid 10 or 15 per cent.”

The aim of the report is, according to the consultant, to find out how many investors are willing to go on with the project. If half the number of initial buyers are interested in continuing, the consultant said the project would be scaled down to half its size. An option would be to transfer their investments to other projects in Dubai that were either completed or close to completion, but as the consultant pointed out, Ivory Tower is Sokook’s only project in Dubai.

“If there is no trust left in the project, then we can talk with the customer and swap their investment to a developer who is more advanced” he said without commenting on which developers Sokook had been in talks with.

At the same time, construction on Gateway Towers, Trump International Tower and Hotel and Frond N villas has been delayed indefinitely, as well as other projects on the other Palm islands. According to group managing director of Nakheel development projects, Mr. Marwan al Qamzi, the projects on Palm Jumeirah will be reviewed when market conditions improve.

Other projects, such as the transformation of the famous cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II into a floating hotel, has also come to a halt as Dubai World seeks to cut costs and temporarily store the vessel in other ports. The port of Cape Town in South Africa has been considered but a decision has yet to be taken.

Commenting on the progress General Manager of DAMAC Properties Mr Ziad El Chaar congratulated the teams working on site.

“To reach the top floor of the building marks a significant stage in the entire construction and development process and this is due to a huge team effort by all involved on site,’ he said. “We will now be working hard to continue with the progress on the exterior finishing of the building while the MEP works and interior designs and specifications are finalised.”

According to an unsourced report, Samsung Engineering and Construction has stopped providing pre-construction services for the 1-Dubai tower, estimated to be more than 600 meters tall. The plans for another high-rise office building, which remains unknown, has also been put on hold. Meraas Chief Executive Sina al-Kazim declined to comment.

Dubai residential real estate prices have fallen by an average of 25 percent since a peak in September, Morgan Stanley said last month, adding some $263 billion of projects had been cancelled or put on hold in the United Arab Emirates. State-owned Meraas said in December it was reviewing its $95-billion Jumeirah Gardens project, launched two months earlier at a Dubai property exhibition.

Last week, Dubai’s Union Properties said it was suspending construction of its $460 million Formula One theme park due to the financial crisis and the drying up of liquidity from banks.

Reuters

The master plan developed by the Abu Dhabi Municipality and KEO will outline sustainability and quality standards that the many owners and developers will uphold, says Uwe Nienstedt, Managing Director at KEO.

At the Meed Arabian World Construction Summit and in keeping with its theme, ‘achieving business sustainability’, Nienstedt shared the vision and key attributes of the five commercial towers areas planned in Mohammed Bin Zayed city.

Nienstedt said:

‘The completed development will cater to the middle-income tenant market, which is currently highly under-served in Abu Dhabi, by adding 30,000 new apartments to house up to 85,000 people in high quality residential communities. In doing so, it will also provide a sustainable source of income to the individual owners of each tower block. Although preceding it, the development has been designed taking many of the principles of Estidama into account.’

Estidama is Abu Dhabi’s contribution to the global discussion on creating more sustainable communities, cities and global enterprises.

The development’s residential towers will be surrounded by pleasant shaded pedestrian walkways and parks. District cooling and double glazing will be employed to maximize energy efficiency and underground parking will ensure that the development remains free of parking congestion. Local facilities planned include health clubs containing spas and swimming pools, local retail, restaurants and cafes.

The Dhs25bn development is aimed at making a significant contribution to addressing apartment rental shortages in Abu Dhabi and at the same time generating long-term financial security for their owners.

Mohammed Bin Zayed Commercial City Towers is made possible by the vision of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. The innovative master plan for the five new high density urban areas was developed by KEO on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Municipality and all 349 tower development plans must be approved by KEO to ensure they conform to its quality specifications.

KEO IC Press Release

Rose Tower was originally to be 380 metres high, but a design modification reduced its height by 47 metres. It is still considered world’s tallest hotel, as Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang (330 m at the moment), North Korea, has yet to be completed.

Construction works began in 2004 and even though Rose Tower was completed in 2007, it has yet to open. According to Rotana, the tower will open within 2009 and those interested may contact Rotana directly.

Contact

Rose Rotana, P.O. Box: 30880, Dubai, UAE

T: +971 (0)4 705 4508
F: +971 (0)4 705 4277
E-mail: sales.dubai@rotana.com