Dubai is aiming for another notch in the “tallest” stakes by building what would be the world’s tallest twin towers. The Dubai Twin Towers will be located at The Lagoons, the master-development taking shape near the Creek. Apart from the images, more details of the project are to be revealed in due course.
Before that, on November 1, the first off-plan properties at The Lagoons go on sale in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as in London and Moscow. These are for the units at the 40-storey Dubai Creek Residences, itself part of the 6-million square feet (1,482 acres) Dubai Creek Harbour cluster. It will form part of a six-tower structure within the ‘Island District’.
To put a perspective on its scale, Dubai Creek Harbour will be three times the size of Downtown. The broader development will form part of Mohammad Bin Rashid (MBR) City.
The developers involved, Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties, are testing investor demand for premium waterfront properties. Top officials said that they are not looking at demand on a year by year basis but what happens over the longer term. Details of the cost or the timeline for completion of the various phases were not revealed.
It was last year that Dubai Holdings announced the alliance with Emaar to revive The Lagoons Construction had been taking place since then. With the Dubai Creek Harbour, the developers’ intention is to “create a new extension of the city banks back into the city…”.
“All stakeholders in Dubai’s property market have learnt the lessons (from the crisis),” said Ahmad Bin Byat, CEO of Dubai Holding. “This is a long-term project and that there will be certain periods of slow demand is a fact of life. But what it all boils down to is whether there is enough supply and demand happening in the market.
“Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties are sharing their synergies and building on their core competencies to create another iconic project that will be the pride of the city.”
Emaar Chairman Mohammad Alabbar said that the balance-sheets of both developers are looking good, and that Emaar would consider conventional borrowing to part-finance the project.
The developers declined to give an indicative price for the Dubai Creek Residences. However, according to Anthony Schober, Head of Valuations at the consultancy DTZ, said that premium properties on the Palm and Dubai Marina currently command Dh2,000 a square foot and more. “It could be that for the new launch, the pricing could be in the Dh1,600-Dh1,800 a square foot range and based on demand generated can be scaled up. It would give them greater flexibility.”
There is also a good deal of launches and sales activity going on at the neighboring Culture Village development, which is being helmed by Dubai Properties and part of Dubai Holding. Dubai Holding, incidentally, is also involved in another massive venture — the Dh20 billion Mall of the World.
Gulf News
30 October
