Dubai launches new real estate projects

With a number of newly announced property projects, Dubai tries to distract from the fact that the building and housing sector is heading toward a phase of cooling down. Mohammed Alabbar, the chairman of the Middle East's biggest developer by market value, Emaar Properties, announced Wednesday to build the world's tallest tower in the emirate in order to top the planned 1,000-meters high Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Emaar recently saw a profit slump of 8 percent year on year. After real estate research firm REIDIN said the sheikhdom, despite a property and construction boom, saw an effective decline of 18 percent in real estate sales in the first three months, developers were rushing to announce new projects. At the same day, Emaar launched Dubai Hills, the first residential project for the planned multi-billion Mohammed Bin Rashid (MBR) City. Also, Diamond Developers announced Dubai's first "green" residential complex, the Dubai Sustainable City (DSC). "Each of the 500 townhouse in DSC will be equipped with a solar panel covering the entire roof so that around 60 percent of every unit's energy needs will be covered by solar power," said the project's chief executive Phill Dunn. In addition, India's Sobhan Group said it will build villas and townhouses for 11 billion Dirham or 2.99 billion dollars to create Sobha City near Dubai's Meydan. These projects have one common message namely that Dubai's construction market is moving on. However, they cannot disguise the fact that after a two-year long comeback of the housing sector, once heavily beaten during the global financial crisis, is heading toward a cooling down. This trend was most visible when last Thursday, Dubai' biggest builder Arabtec Construction said its net profit in the first three months decreased by 25 percent compared to the same period last year.