No rent hike in this Dubai free zone

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), ranked as the world's fastest-growing international financial centre, has ruled out increase in office rentals, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

“We haven’t increased the rents in DIFC for the past three years. We are not going to increase the rentals right now as we don’t see rents going up in other areas that we compete with,” said Brett Schafer, Chief Executive Officer, DIFC Properties.

DIFC isn’t competing with other office buildings in the emirate, he asserted, stating, “We compete with other financial centre’s such as London, Tokyo and Singapore.”

“The rentals aren’t going up in those markets and so we are not increasing our rents. We still offer good value compared to our competitors.”

It was in December 2010 when DIFC Authority revealed a new pricing "matrix" for office rentals and since January 2011, the rents have ranged between Dh160 and Dh280 per square foot, depending on the size of the office and its location within DIFC.

In October, DIFC said there are over 1,000 companies operating from the Centre and the combined workforce was more than 15,000 at the end of June 2013.

The centre said that accessibility provided by Dubai’s airports and infrastructure, combined with the livability and cosmopolitan culture of the emirate, had bolstered its proposition, attracting 21 of the world’s top 25 banks, 11 of the top 20 money managers, 6 of the world’s 10 largest insurers, and 6 out of 10 top law firms to the centre.

Occupancy of DIFC-owned commercial offices in the Gate District rose to 97 per cent of the leasable space, the Centre has said. Meanwhile, occupancy in its-owned retail space increased to 99 per cent, compared to 98 per cent occupancy in 2012.

Emirates 24|7 reported earlier that DIFC was seeking investment worth Dh15 billion through joint ventures to develop its remaining 10 million square feet land bank.

Read: DIFC becoming 'unique community’

“We have 110 acres in our master plan, of which 25 million square feet has development potential. We have already built 15 million square feet and now we are building the remaining 10 million square feet, which will need investment of nearly Dh15 billion,” Schafer said.

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