Dubai Investments sees $2.7b of property projects

DUBAI: Dubai Investments PJSC plans 10 billion dirhams ($2.7 billion) of real estate projects in the next five years as it seeks to benefit from resurgent property demand. Developments include Mirdif Hills, a 2.5 billion-dirham project in Dubai that will include 1,500 homes, a 230-room hotel, shops and 200,000 square feet (18,600 square meters) of office space, Chief Executive Officer Khalid Bin Kalban said in an interview. The company's Dubai Investment Real Estate Co. unit will start tendering for the development in the next two months, he said. Dubai Investments, whose largest shareholder is state-owned Investment Corporation of Dubai ICD, is seeking to profit from a market recovery in the emirate after the financial crisis in 2008 sparked one of the world's worst property crashes.

Local developers are reviving projects as measures such as mortgage limits and the doubling of transaction fees helped stabilize the market. "We don't think there will be need to borrow" for Mirdif Hills, Bin Kalban said in a Dec. 23 interview in Dubai. "We'll be able to sell the project easily because of its size, location and components."

Still, the company may need bank or debt-market funding for a 7 billion-dirham project planned in Dubai Investment Park. The 13 million square-foot village with homes, shops, offices and hotels may require the company to raise cash either through loans, Islamic bonds or by seeking investors to take a stake in the project, according to Bin Kalban.

"We are talking to a major investor to come on board and help," he said. "They will either pay us rental or take over the project within a certain number of years. We are discussing seriously the option of rent to own with them."

Work started two weeks ago on a 800 million-dirham business park in Fujairah, one of the United Arab Emirates' seven sheikhdoms , Bin Kalban said. The park will include a 220room hotel, 200,000 square feet of offices, 150,000 square feet of retail space and some apartments. It's set for completion within two-and-a-half years, he said. Al Taif Investment, a 60 percent-owned unit of Dubai Investments and developer of the business park, secured a 300 million-dirham loan from Al-Hilal Bank PJSC for the project.