One of the most remarkable commercial construction projects announced for Dubai in recent weeks is a replica of India’s famous Taj Mahal. The planned building will be a more ambitious project than the original, and will be about four times larger in scale.
Other projects in the works which had been put on hold since the country hit a property slump in 2008 include a skyscraper that will feature nine swimming pools and an office building complex that will have a mile-long canal on the grounds.
Meydan City Corp. has announced that it will revive plans for a development that will feature parks, canals, and lagoons. The proposed development will also include a skyscraper with pools and what the developer calls “sky gardens.” The government has approved plans for a canal that would from the Business Bay area to the sea.
The commercial property market has improved somewhat recently, but not enough to justify several large projects going ahead at once, according to Craig Plumb, the head of research for the Middle East at Jones Lang LaSalle. He stated recently that the projects should be phased in over a longer period and built in line with demand instead.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, approximately one-third of the office space in Dubai’s central business district remains vacant. The vacancy rate remains higher than in other neighborhoods as well. About 900,000 square meters or 9.7 million square feet will be coming onto the market next year, which is the equivalent of 13 per cent of the space currently on the market.
The real estate market is starting to recover after close to four years of price drops. The number of property transactions increased by 50 per cent during the first six months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to the Dubai Land Department. The value of the land transactions was 12 billion dirhams, which is still less than the 46.5 billion dirhams sold in the first six months of 2008.
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