Dubai: Dubai’s property values seem to be stabilising or inching up slightly ... but the same cannot be said of its rising land prices. Private developers are now scrambling to get some plots before prices shoot up too high, according to the head of Danube Group. “For five months since June, I’ve been searching for plots at a good enough price — but it’s getting difficult finding them now,” said Chairman Rizwan Sajan. “At Al Furjan, it used to be Dh110-Dh120 a square foot, but now going for Dh140-Dh150. Land in Dubai’s secondary locations are not cheap any longer. It’s going to be a factor that will resonate in overall cost of development.”
On Tuesday, Danube’s property division launched its seventh freehold project in Dubai and its first high-rise. The G+35-storey “Miraclz” will have a built-up area of 400,000 square foot and cost Dh400 million to build. It will have 498 apartments.
The location in the Furjan cluster cost over “Dh100 a square foot”, Sajan said. “And to be on the safe side we bought another plot here at the same price. We usually take three months on average between launches — going without one for five months adds to our costs. We have sales teams that don’t have anything to do during the time when we don’t have regular launches. Our overheads will keep running.”
Danube projects have tended to average Dh300 million to Dh400 million. The decision to go ahead with a high-rise was brought on by the land availability. “The foundation works have started and the project should be complete in two to two-and-a-half years,” Sajan added. “We have maintained the price per square foot at around Dh1,000 a square foot — in line with earlier launches — and retained the 1 per cent rate on the monthly instalments.”
Meanwhile, the first of Danube’s handovers — the town houses forming part of its Dreamz project — will start from December. “Going forward, Danube will continue to maintain an average three-month gap between launches — that’s the ideal pace for us,” Sajan said. “We will never go heavy with our project portfolio — this way we can plan the sales and construction cycles better.”
After rushing out with new launches through last month, Dubai’s private developers — with a few exceptions — could start taking it easy in the coming weeks and hold back until the new year. By then, the market hopes, they hope to have a better reading of the levels of buyer interest out there.
