Dubai: Even the Dubai South sequel is proving a hit — buyers queued up overnight on Friday to get a chance to snap up homes starting from Dh280,000 in the second release of units at The Pulse cluster within the master-development. And there were only a limited number of units that actually went on sale on Saturday morning at the event held at an upscale hotel in the city. The first release — of an estimated 300-plus units — happened last month and were sold out immediately.
The prices were Dh650-Dh800 on a per-square-foot basis. “There were no price mark-ups between the first and second releases and that’s working in the project’s favour,” according to market sources. “The demand for the second release is in keeping with what has gone before — both end-users and investors are getting interested in the Dubai South story.”
Some estate agents talked about tokens — being issued for a place in the queue — going for a sharp premium as buyers wanted to get their hands on a unit. However, this could not be independently confirmed by Dubai South officials. Whatever be the actuality, the scenes at the sales release were reminiscent of what used to be a regular feature in the 2005-2008 period and with some of the launches that took place during 2011-14.
The Pulse releases — the estimates suggest that Pulse accounts for 300 plus townhouses and more than 800 apartments overall — as well as that of Emaar South earlier confirm the coming of age of Dubai South as the go-to place for mid-market buyers in Dubai. The master-developer Dubai South will also be coming up with another cluster launch called The Village. Private developers such as MAG are lining up with their own versions.
The Dubai South successes will reinforce the impression that a substantial buyer base exists for mid-market properties priced sensibly and that they are willing to commit to a project that is still three years and more away from realising its full potential. The response comes even though there are many recently completed properties available elsewhere in the market.
“Pricing and the belief that it will set the quality marker for mid-tier developments is what’s sustaining the Dubai South momentum,” said an investor. “That’s why they are able to compete and win against ready properties.
“And because of the smaller ticket prices, many of them around Dh1 million or even well below, is accessible enough for buyers not to need mortgage support.”
There are also anecdotal reports of International City and Discovery Gardens investors divesting their assets there and trying to get into Dubai South. There hasn’t been much activity of Dubai South properties in the secondary market as of now, because investors are most likely waiting for Dubai realty to hit full recovery mode before doing so.
But they will also need to keep in mind that more developers are likely to get on the Dubai South bandwagon and that could keep prices grounded to around their launch range.
