Emaar apartment sales plunge on weak demand

Emaar Properties, the developer of the tallest tower in Dubai, said revenue from apartment sales plunged 85 percent in the second quarter amid weak property demand in the Arabian Gulf emirate.Income from apartment sales dropped to AED265.6m ($72.31m) from AED1.75bn a year earlier, according to Emaar’s financial statement posted on Dubai’s stock markert on Sunday. Revenue from sale of villas jumped to AED337m from AED54.5m.Emaar posted second-quarter earnings on July 26 and provided a breakdown of revenue on Sunday. Emaar, UAE’s biggest developer by market value, was hurt by a more than 60 percent slump in property prices in its home market as speculative demand waned and banks tightened lending since mid-2008.The company reported a 69 percent decline in second-quarter profit as it wrote down the value of a bank investment and delivered fewer completed homes. Sales of commercial units, plots of land and others rose to AED596.5m in the second quarter from AED176.7m a year earlier, while revenue from the hospitality business advanced 20 percent AED283.8m, according to the statement. From / Arabian Business News