In the last quarter of the 20th Century the tiny Emirate of Dubai was one of the world’s major oil-producing nations, but around the turn of the millennium the country’s rulers commenced the most ambitious, and futuristic, development project on the planet to assure the continued prosperity of their nation after the black liquid gold runs out.
Great changes have taken place in Dubai over the last seven years. Commerce and tourism are seen as the keys to the longevity of a nation that will soon have few natural resources other than sand, sun and location. The Dubai government has set about creating massive commercial and hotel complexes, in partnership with regional developers, and have encouraged a huge expansion in the residential property market. By 2002 the then Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, decreed that those from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council states should be allowed to buy homes in the Emirates for the first time. Last year the nation's laws were changed to grant residency rights to foreign homeowners; prior to this most needed a sponsored three-year work visa to live there.
With year-long sunshine and daytime temperatures that seldom drop much below 30 degrees Centigrade, plus long gently shelving white sandy beaches, Dubai has all the basic ingredients to attract tourists. However, unlike much larger neighbouring Abu Dhabi, the seventy kilometre coastline was pretty much all developed by 2000, so an ingenious plan was drawn up to extend beachfront property availability by constructing offshore island developments.
The original concept called for a doubling of the seafront, but as plans began to take shape it was realised that reclamation technology existed to massively increase this. Eventually the Palm Island trilogy, the World Islands and the Dubai Waterfront will give the Emirate over a thousand kilometres of beach, rather than the original seventy. To form these new island complexes, mind-boggling quantities of rock have been transported from the barren mountainous Jebel region in the east and dropped into the Persian Gulf, and then sand has been dredged from the seabed to form beaches.
Nakheel is the developer responsible for Dubai’s offshore island developments, plus major inland commercial projects such as the massive Ibn Battuta shopping mall and the Dragon Mart retail complex for Chinese goods of every type, not to mention the inland International City development of commercial, residential and retail properties. Work on the first island complex, the Palm Jumeirah, started in 2002 and within 72 hours of being offered all four thousand properties, in a five to three apartment and villas split, had been sold off plan. Today, with the first units now occupied, prices have quadrupled despite countless other properties being built on the two other Palm developments, a waterfront city complex further along the coast and on several inland complexes built around water features.
One place where canny property buyers can snap up finished apartments and villas for instant investment potential is the Palm Island development off Jumeirah. Residents have already started moving into the first of the trio of islands constructed in the shape of a giant palm tree. The development features apartment complexes, hotels, retail outlets, marinas and community services on the main trunk, known as the Golden Mile, as well as rows of beachfront villas on the fronds. Several property brokers are already catering for this rapidly growing market.
The second of Nakheel’s Palm Islands trio is now taking shape, just a few kilometres from the heart of Dubai City and the international airport. Here on the Palm Deira, ideally close to the commercial heart of the Emirate, yet offering luxury beachside apartments and villas on a near tropical island setting, properties in the Marina Residence complex are currently being offered for sale by the developer. As the majority of foreign white collar workers are employed on three-year visa contracts, renting rather than buying is the norm, with the employer usually granting a rent allowance in addition to a tax-free salary to attract the best employees from around the globe, so buy-to-rent can be a very good medium term investment.
Twenty kilometres further down the coast from Jumeirah, close to what will be Dubai’s second international airport, the third of the Palm Islands is also taking shape at Jebel Ali, and next to this work has started on the even larger Dubai Waterfront development. When the trio, the Waterfront and the offshore World Islands complex aimed at the super-rich are completed by the middle of the next decade, it is estimated that Nakheel will have provided new luxury homes for an incredible 1.7 million people.
Two other major property developers, Emaar and Dubai Properties, are working in close co-operation with the government in the commerce, tourism and residential expansion. If looking for mainland rather than island waterfront property, the Dubai Marina development by Emaar is well worth considering. Located between the main Sheik Zayed Highway and the sea, overlooking what is claimed to be the world’s largest manmade marina, this two mile long complex of multi-storey apartment towers and luxury villas will eventually house 120,000 people.
The first phase of the Dubai Marina development, a favoured renting location for foreigners working in the nearby Media City and Knowledge Village complexes, was completed in 2003. Designed from the outset to be a “city within a city”, it offers sports facilities, retail outlets and restaurants, in addition to residential properties ranging from one-bed apartments to millionaire’s villas, all in a canal-side setting inspired by Venice but geared to 21st Century living.
Dubai Properties on the waterfront and the Palm Islands range from studios and one bedroom apartments through to three bedroom penthouses or family villas with as many as six or eight bedrooms. At time of writing, brand new one and two bedroom apartments overlooking Dubai Marina are available from around £150,000 and typical new one and three bedroom apartments on the Palm Jumeirah Golden Mile are being advertised between £240,000 and £410,000. A top of the range penthouse apartment on the Palm Jumeirah could set you back less than £600,000. Until the next batch of family villas is released on the Palms, however, it may take a bit of searching around Real Estate brokers to find a suitable pre-owned property.
The first of Dubai’s new residential complexes sold out virtually as soon as announced, so to stop a mad property rush waterfront and island developments are now being released on a carefully controlled and phased basis. On a recent Living Abroad visit to the Palm Jumeirah, Nakheel’s PR team let it slip that there is likely to be another sales launch of waterfront properties within a couple of months … but best keep that under your hat to ensure you’re first in the queue.
