All eyes are on completion and delivery. Properties nearing completion are commanding the highest premium in Dubai. Villas and apartments are generating premiums of as much as 70 per cent to 200 per cent a year – far higher than the 10 per cent to 30 per cent for completed properties.
For Jumeirah Lake Towers the increase has been not less than 70-80 per cent in the past six to eight months, even before handover began. These premiums are one of the highest in the market .
At the Villa project, a development by Dubai Properties and Mizin in Dubailand, prices have appreciated sharply in the past two years. The price per sq ft was Dh550 to Dh650 at the end of 2006 for a three-bedroom villa. Now it is in the region of Dh1,000 to Dh1,050 a sq ft – a 90 to 95 per cent increase.
A five-bedroom villa was Dh3.6m in December 2006; now it is Dh8m – a little over 100 per cent in a year and a half.
For villas at the Al Barari project in Dubailand, the premium has been 200 per cent on off-plan for two years. "The villas initially selling at Dh12m are now going for Dh36m," said Basel Al Kasem, CEO, Al Basel Group.
Within off-plan properties, some of the Dubai apartments have been earning a higher return on investment than villas depending on the location and developer, say brokers.