1.42 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

4,700 new flats ready on Reem Island

Published

Around 4,700 housing units have been completed on Reem Island and will be delivered to their owners before the end of this year, a move that will put further downward pressure on rents, a real estate executive says.

The tiny island, which has undergone massive development over the past few years including infrastructure projects worth around Dh14 billion, will be home to nearly 200,000 people when all housing projects are finished, nearly a fifth of Abu Dhabi’s total population of about one million.

The first stage of infrastructure development has just been completed while the second phase is under way and the third would be completed in 2020.

“The Reem Island project will supply nearly 4,700 housing units to the Abu Dhabi market before the end of this year,” said Tariq Sultan, CEO of Bunya, the company which is in charge of most infrastructure projects on the island.

“Most of the units will be in Marina Square, which will be delivered before the end of this year… it includes nearly 3,433 apartments,” Sultan was quoted as saying by the Arabic language daily Alkhaleej.

He said infrastructure projects on the island, including roads, electricity and water, telecommunications and other services, are worth around Dh14 billion, adding that Bunya’s share is estimated at nearly Dhseven billion.

The remaining projects are carried out by Reem’s three developers—Surouh, Tamouh and Reem Investments, he said.

“Infrastructure projects have so far attracted investment of around Dhsix billion and the rest will be spent in the coming years…the island will be connected to mainland by nine causeways, including seven bridges linking it to Abu Dhabi city…the other two will link it with Saadiyat island and to the Abu Dhabi-Dubai motor way close to the Abu Dhabi International Airport,” he said.

Property experts said the Reem project would contribute to further depressing rents in Abu Dhabi, where they are already down by around 30 per cent over the past two years because of lower construction costs, easing demand and an increase in supply from Khalifa City and other housing projects.

“Although some of the dwellers on Reem Island will be from outside Abu Dhabi, the relatively large number of expected residents on the Island constitutes a psychological factor that will help push down rents along with other factors,” said Ahmed Ashoor, a real estate agent based in Abu Dhabi.

“But it is not the only factor…prices have already been down because of expanding supply and waning demand….another major factor is the government’s decision to move hundreds of thousands of construction workers from the city to new houses near Musaffah industrial area.”

Reem, an Arabic for deer, has been transformed from a little strip of land staring soundlessly round the lock for centuries at the city’s busy life and dazzling lights into a huge habitat that could form the nucleus of the future capital.

Located less than 200 metres from the nearest coastal point in the Capital, Reem has an area of just one million square metres. But it will easily accommodate up to 200,000 people given the massive high-rise towers that have been erected on the strip to dwarf the nearby buildings on mainland.

Besides bridges and causeways, Abu Dhabi is also constructing the Middle East’s longest tunnel opposite Reem to avert possible traffic congestions.

Al Reem and Saadiyat are among several projects to be carried out by Abu Dhabi within its 2030 development blueprint that envisages the capital’s population to nearly triple to three million.

According to the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, projects cover nearly 200 islands and their total costs could exceed Dh150 billion within five years. Other major projects are expected to be carried out beyond that period at a cost of nearly Dh700 billion.

For this purpose, Abu Dhabi has embarked on a major expansion project at its airport to increase its capacity to 20 million passengers in 2015.