Emaar to sell top-end Dubai homes tonight to first-comers

Dubai-based master developer Emaar Properties will launch sales of premium collection of residential units within Downtown Dubai and Arabian Ranches tonight.

Emaar, the developer behind the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa, said in a note to potential investors that it will be unveiling its “premium collection, a repertoire of homes at the city’s most exclusive addresses” at Emaar Pavilion in Downtown Dubai.

Sales of the properties, the company said, will begin at 8pm on Thursday, July 3, and will be on first-come, first-serve basis.

This is in contrast to the recent mechanism that the developer had adopted, wherein buyers interested in purchasing off-plan units at Emaar’s numerous recent launches were asked to pre-register online. In the recent launches, the developer would give out a token number to selected registrants who would then be asked to submit documents and arrive on the sale day with the required down payment.

However, even as tonight’s sale is open to interested buyers, not many expect a repeat of last year's stampede when Emaar launched off-plan units in Mira, its first project launch after the property slowdown of 2009.

Read: Hundreds camp at Emaar office for 2 days for Dubai villa launch

As Emirates 24|7 had then reported, more than 500 'investors' had camped overnight outside Emaar’s office in Downtown Dubai, waiting for the developer to begin the sale of the first phase of its latest project ‘Mira’, the first residential community in Reem.

By next morning, before the launch of the sale process, the crowd had swollen to 1,000 potential buyers, and with only 188 Dh1-million 3-bedroom villas put up on sale, it resulted in a scramble and ambulance and police had to be called in to control the mob.

Emaar reportedly had to launch more units at that Dh1m price-point to keep up with investor demand. Read: More Emaar units after ‘scramble’

House prices in Dubai have seen rapid increases over the past 18 months, and property market analysts maintain that after a slight slowdown in house price growth in the first half of 2014, the positive momentum in Dubai house prices will continue in the second half of 2014.

In some areas, prices have almost doubled since 2011, and developers including Emaar have been launching new projects at regular intervals over the past few quarters.

After rising by the most in the world for a year, prices of Dubai’s prime residential property grew by just 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2014, according to Knight Frank, a global property research firm.

In its latest ‘Dubai Prime Residential Report,’ the firm cites strong economic conditions, a well performing labour market and prospects of loosening credit standards for buyers to suggest that demand for prime residential property will see an uptick in the short-term.

“That, combined with the fact that very little is due to be completed in the prime segment over the next 18 months, points to luxury residential prices resuming their upward path in the second half of this year,” says Victoria Garrett, Associate Partner of Residential at Knight Frank, in the report.

Read: Dubai house prices to rise again in second half of 2014: Knight Frank

The firm also said in a different report that more people are considering purchasing a house in Dubai for living in it as the increase in the emirate’s house rents outpaced all global destinations in the first quarter of 2014.

Knight Frank’s latest Prime Global Rental Index shows that house rents in Dubai grew at 6 per cent in the three months ended March 2014, the most in the world, followed by Tokyo (5 per cent) and Geneva (4.1 per cent). “Dubai and Tokyo recorded the strongest rates of growth with prime rents rising by 6 and 5 per cent, respectively, in the first three months of the year,” the firm noted.

Read: Dubai rents rise fastest in the world

Emaar hasn’t revealed much details on the latest properties on sale, but has said that they include “luxurious residences” in Downtown Dubai and “elegant villas” within Arabian Ranches community.

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