UAE’s property sector on solid track despite COVID-19 challenges

Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Reporter

The UAE property market is in fine fettle despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The completion rate of property projects in Dubai this year is quite encouraging despite the global trends, with over 20,000 units having been completed in the first four months of 2020 amid a slowdown in new project launches.

In addition, work on construction projects is also continuing at a steady pace as the sector has been exempted from the restriction of coronavirus, resulting in most of the projects going ahead with deliveries.

Reportage Properties, a leading real estate developer, announced total sales of Dhs 260 million from January to April 2020.

The company is developing 8 projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, providing about 3150 housing units, 2425 of which are within 6 Abu Dhabi projects, while 719 units are within two projects in Dubai.

“We achieved good sales during the first five months of this year despite the challenges related to the repercussions of the outbreak of COVID-19. This reflects the UAE real estate stability , and the continued demand, especially for distinguished projects that provide high quality services to investors ,”said Naser Alkhamees , CEO, Reportage Group.  

“The local real estate sector can overcome the challenges of the current crisis, especially in light of the increasing investor confidence in the UAE real estate sector,” he added.

Alkhamees confirmed the Group’s keenness to launch a number of innovative promotional offers that took into account the real estate market conditions nowadays. The offers boosted sales although the real estate market in Abu Dhabi and Dubai was affected by the tough conditions of shutdown, like all global markets, which means the Covid-19effects in the UAE are Limited, as a result of many economic incentives and initiatives being launched since the eruption of the crisis.

He pointed out to the robust foreign and local investors demand, who try to seize the distinguished opportunities in the real estate market. That was reflected in the Group’s sales during the first five months of this year, which amounted to about Dhs260m,compared to Dhs480m for whole 2019.

Alkhamees noted that recent data indicates strong sales in Abu Dhabi and Dubai during the first 5 months of this year, a period that coincided with the global outbreak of the new coronavirus.

The data from AbuDhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport, DMT, showed that the value of real estate transactions in Abu Dhabi increased during the first quarter of this year by 22% to Dhs 19.2 billion, compared to about 15.8b for the same period of the previous year.

Dubai Real Estate sales topped Dhs 24.75b from January 2020 to April, whereas data from the Dubai Land Department showed 12105 sales transactions in the first four months of this year.

Alkhamees pointed out that Reportage was keen to provide more facilities inall their projects, in line with the market conditions during the current period, providing flexible payment plans, exemption from some fees, as well as offering discounts on some units when paidin cash. All the facilities comply withthe rules and regulations in the UAE.

He pointed to good sales also in the “Alexis Tower” project in Downtown Jebel Ali Dubai, which provides 370 luxury housing units, as well as the “Rukan” being developed in the “Dubailand” area in cooperation with “Continental Investment. The project first phase consists of349 villas.

Alkhamees added that sales in some projects in Abu Dhabi are still robust emphasizing that sales in the “Oasis Residence 1” project which will add 612 apartments in Masdar City, were up 90%, whereas in “Oasis Residence 2” which provides about 304 housing units, were up to 83%.

Other projects in Abu Dhabi include “Al Raha Loft 1” which provides 164 housing units in Al Raha Beach area, and “Al Raha Loft 2” which provides 110 housing units.

He confirmed that the company recently launched sales in “The Gate” project, which provides 463 housing units in Masdar City, in addition to the “Al Maryah Vista” project on Al Maryah Island, which includes 772 units.

More than 15,000 apartments were completed and the top areas were Business Bay, Town Square, Downtown Dubai, Dubai Sports City and Dubai Production City. Over 3,800 villas/townhouses were completed and the top five communities were Akoya, Dubai South, Damac Hills, Akoya Oxygen and Hatta. Over 1,000 serviced apartments were also completed during the January-April period, according to Property Finder’s latest data released on Wednesday.