Land trade in capital tops Dh43bn

The real estate transactions processed by the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City have shown signs of remarkable activities in 2011, with obvious contrasts between the size of mortgage and selling transactions.

Selling and mortgage transactions carried out during the period from January 1 up to December 30 posted Dh42.9 billion, of which land sales constituted Dh3.77 billion and mortgage transactions valued Dh39.127 billion.

Selling and mortgage transactions fluctuated from January through the end of December last year. Selling transactions in January clocked Dh195.6 million, picked up in February to more than Dh206 million and rocketed in March to more than Dh871 million, but experienced a decline in April to Dh349.027 million and dropped further in May to hit Dh184 million and continued the downward trend in June dropping to Dh188.585 million and plummeted further in July to Dh91 million, but gathered pace in August to hit Dh135.745 million, and went further up in September to record Dh171.334 million and continued the surge in October to clock Dh282.273 million. Though dropping in November to Dh139.13 million it soon picked up drastically in December to touch an all-time high figure in the whole year of Dh917.238 million.

Mortgage transactions dominated the real estate market in 2011, peaking in August recording transactions worth of Dh9.827 billion followed by June (Dh8 billion), and October (Dh4.386 billion); including a transaction for registering a mortgage contract of a privately-owned investment entity amounting to $100 million (Dh367,301,000) which was the biggest single real estate mortgage contract ever registered by the Municipality last year.

Mortgage turnover in January generated Dh2.64 billion and in February it posted Dh1.356 billion jumping in March to over Dh2 billion and in April it rocketed to Dh3.296 billion but fell sharply to Dh1.503 billion in May and Dh1.466 billion in June before starting to rise again to Dh2.707 billion in September and dropping again to Dh1.143 billion in December.

Uwaidha Al Qubaisi, Acting Executive Director of Municipal Services at the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City, attributed the soaring business within the Lands and Properties Division during the past year to the confidence the investors have pinned in Abu Dhabi's economy and the package of enhanced procedures adopted by the Municipality, particularly in simplifying processes, introducing e-services and
enhancing performance mechanisms to bring it in line with the Mission of the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City to provide superior quality and effective municipal services and attain the highest rates of satisfaction of customers and community members in general.

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