Nakheel scoops US$23.6m from Palm land sale

Dubai’s Nakheel has sold a 60,000 sq ft plot of land on its flagship development, the Palm Jumeirah, for AED87m (US$23.6m), the firm said Tuesday. The sale of the land, opposite the Atlantis, The Palm hotel, is a sign of “renewed investor confidence in Dubai real estate,” the government-owned developer said in a statement. “We have seen a very healthy demand in the first quarter of 2012, and this looks set to continue for the year,” a Nakheel spokesperson said. Residential plot prices on some parts of Palm Jumeirah have increased 30 percent in the last 12 months, Nakheel said. The state-backed developer has sold 74 plots of land on the flagship development totaling AED657m to date, it added. Property prices on Nakheel's Shoreline development, however, have plummeted by as much as 75 percent in the past four years, research published by Arabian Business earlier this month revealed. Nakheel on Monday posted a 30 percent increase in 2011 earnings and forecast a recovery in the emirate’s battered real estate market this year. Profit for 2011 increased to AED1.3bn up from AED1bn in 2010. Chairman Ali Rashed Lootah said he expected the firm’s 2012 performance to be “even better”. Nakheel was one of the biggest casualties of Dubai’s real estate crash, suspending at least 100 projects in the wake of a property collapse that more than halved house prices in the emirate. The firm, which was forced to write down US$21.4bn from the value of its real estate, completed a US$16bn debt restructuring last year and is now wholly-owned by the Dubai government, after being carved out from parent company Dubai World.