More Emaar units after ‘scramble’

If you thought you missed out on the under-Dh1 million price-tag for a 3-bedroom Emaar villa in Dubai, which went on sale earlier today, well, you should know how the sale event went.

“There was utter madness at the sales event,” an eyewitness told Emirates 24|7.

As reported earlier by this website, hundreds of hopefuls were camping outside the Emaar Sales office in Downtown Dubai since Thursday morning, 48 hours before the actual sales event.

Reminiscent of the property heydays, more than 1,000 ‘potential investors’ found themselves outside real estate developer Emaar Properties’ 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.

With just 188 villas supposed to go on sale, those thousands of potential investors had but a slim chance of bagging a part of the project at under Dh1 million for a three-bedroom villa. But there were additional units released after the “overwhelming” response. 

“With the launch of Mira townhouses in Reem generating overwhelming investor response, several additional units were released for sale, over and above the 188 townhouses that were originally part of the launch,” a spokesperson for property developer Emaar told Emirates 24|7 in an e-mailed statement.

Emaar had announced that the project would go on sale at 7am on the morning of April 13, 2013, Saturday, on a first-come-first-serve basis. “We adopted a first-come, first-served basis to give more opportunity for investors in the UAE and internationally to be part of the sales,” Emaar's spokesperson said in the statement.

But why the mad scramble? “The Mira villas created a lot of interest this weekend for three reasons. The end-user market has grown, and the demand for family communities is strong as a result,” Rami Abifaraj, Manager, Residential Sales Head Office at Better Homes, told Emirates 24|7.

“Secondly, being the first phase, the price-point makes for exceptional value. Thirdly, the developer Emaar is reputable. This was no doubt the reason for the popularity of these sales,” he said.

So, what happened at the launch?

“Everything was okay until just before 7am, but then some people tried to break the barricades in a bid to crash the queue,” the eyewitness recounted.

“Eventually, police and ambulance had to be called,” he said, adding that a woman passed out in the ensuing melee.

Apparently, words were exchanged and there were even fisticuffs between security guards and hopeful homeowners as ‘investors’, some of whom had braved two nights and three days outside the Emaar office, began losing their patience as others tried to outsmart them by sneaking in at the top of the queue.

“The investors who had arrived much ahead of the sales were informed that sales will commence only on Saturday morning. However, due to the significant crowd that had formed, the sales had to be delayed,” according to the Emaar statement. “We worked with the concerned authorities to manage the crowd, and we regret the inconvenience caused to investors due to the unprecedented rush.”

However, market participants believe Emaar could have handled the sales process in a better way. “The headline price-tag of Dh988,888 turned out to be misleading,” Shamsh Kalkar, CEO and President of Dubai-based Kalkar Real Estate, told this website.

Nadeem Tariq, Director, Dubai-based Aaj Properties, told Emirates 24|7 that “while there were only three to four such villas on sale at the launch,  the actual average price of the three-bedroom villas on sale ranged between Dh1.1 million and Dh1.7 million.”

The payment plan, according to Tariq, who claims to have landed some 'great bragains' is 5 per cent through a current-dated cheque, 10 per cent by July-end, 15 per cent in December, 10 per cent next April, and so on.

“This was a remarkable launch,” said Tariq, adding that he and his colleagues and family were in the queue since Thursday. “My father's token was No. 1,” he proudly told this website. 

“Type 3M/3E villas with a better location, park or pool-facing, went for about Dh1.425 million while the extra-large Type 1E kind of villas were priced at up to Dh1.6 million,” Tariq said.

According to him, a normal Type 3M villa was on offer for Dh1.1 million, while Type 1M villas were sold for Dh1.48 million, and Type 2E villas were offloaded at Dh1.575 million.

There have been unconfirmed reports that a few ‘smart’ investors even offered up to Dh10,000 to those near the top of the queue, aware that some of those in the line were just there to collect a token on behalf of the real investors.

“After the initial fracas, Emaar officials announced that the sale had been ‘cancelled’, and asked those outside their office to leave,” the eyewitness told Emirates 24|7.

With a large number of hopefuls turned away, Emaar eventually began the sales process at about 10.30am, onlookers said.

“I believe investors had to put up a 5 per cent deposit,” Kalkar said.

In addition, in a bid to discourage property flippers, Emaar has in the past included clauses where the resale of an off-plan unit is barred until the construction-linked payment of at least 30 per cent of the unit's value. The developer is expected to be following the same structure with the current project as well.

That, however, doesn’t seem to be holding back the ‘lucky’ agents from flipping. Kalkar maintains that a number of Dubai-based property agents attended the launch, and some of those who managed to net properties have already put them back in the market at up to 25 per cent premium.

Not many, however, will be inclined to resell the villas as the scope of appreciation, in Tariq's words, is tremendous.

As Kalkar puts it, “While investors lining up for a good project signals pent-up demand and market’s faith in the developer’s ability, with the mad scramble witnessed today, one can only hope that the crazy days of 2007-08 don’t come back to bite us again.”

On the other hand, Tariq claims that with the Dubai economy back on track with a bang, there is no reason why such villas won't fetch a good premium when they are delivered in 2016. “This launch reminded me of the initial Springs/Meadows launches in 2004/05 - the price appeciation witnessed in those villas, initially priced at starting Dh588,888, has been remarkable, and that's what we hope from the current launch as well.”

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