Dubai mortgage lender Amlak's 2020 losses widen to Dh437.98m

Dubai: Net losses at the Dubai home financing company widened to Dh437.98 million from Dh319.78 million in 2019. Revenues grew marginally during the period to Dh282.75 million from Dh278.57 million.

Amlak, which recorded accumulated losses of Dh1.8 billion as of end June 2020, saw its total assets slip to Dh3.99 billion end of last year from Dh5.3 billion. 

Amlak’s numbers mirror the difficult phase Dubai’s real estate is passing through, as offplan launches shrink and developers rely on post-handover payment plans to bring their inventory down. Multiple reports have spoken about interest for mortgage-backed sales in the second-half of last year, but the space has become quite competitive with multiple lenders in the fray.

“Lenders will have to convince property buyers that they are getting never-before rates of as low as 1.99 per cent,” said the head of a mortgage division at a local bank.

But buyers are also shopping around for post-handover plans direct from developers, and thus avoiding the mortgage transactions and related fees.