The property market in Dubai is stable and moving towards becoming a more matured market due to “significant steps” adopted by the real estate regulator and the Central Bank of the UAE, according to an industry official.
Parvez Khan, chairman of Pacific Ventures, paid rich tribute to the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and underlined the need to open up banking sector for real estate to bring more stability in the market.
“The real estate market in Dubai is bit slow, but still lucrative and stable,” Khan told Khaleej Timesahead of his Dh2.4 billion mega development launch in Dubai this week.
Pacific Ventures, a Dubai-based diversified conglomerate focusing on property developments, was established in 2011 and has developed a trail of successful residential, retail, hospitality and fitness developments including Burj Pacific and Pacific Village, among others. With the launch of its new flagship development — The Royal Estates by Shah Rukh Khan — the company holds Dh4 billion projects comprising of approximately 2,500 units that will be delivered by 2018.
Khan, an entrepreneur developer of Indian origin, believes in building affordable homes for the upper middle class segment. He has full faith in Dubai’s visionary leadership, which inspired him to invest in emirate’s property sector in the midst of global financial crisis when no one was taking risk in real estate investment.
“Pacific Ventures strives to empower customers to own an affordable, luxurious living in this iconic city, Dubai, within communities that suit them the best. The company provides timely deliveries, transparent services and nurture gratifying relationships with customers to offer holistic comfort,” Khan said.
“Trusted since 1992, Pacific Ventures is a part of the premier developer, Pacific Group, based in India, that has successfully delivered outstanding residential, retail, hospitality and fitness developments over the last 20 years,” he added.
Investing in midst of crisis
Khan formed Pacific Ventures and made forays into Dubai’s real estate market in 2011 by taking over two stalled projects at Jumeriah Village Circle under a project revival scheme called Tanmia as a challenge. In 2013, he secured two more developments — Burj Pacific, a 20-storey tower at the Downtown Burj district and Pacific Village, a cluster of villas and townhouses in Dubailand.
“When I landed in Dubai about five years back to explore business opportunities in the country, no one dared to invest in the property sector reeling from its worst crisis in the wake of global financial crisis. Simultaneously, I saw fast execution of projects like Burj Khalifa and Dubai Metro,” Khan said.
“I analysed the situation, went through the vision of Shaikh Mohammed for Dubai and made up my mind to invest in real estate sector because I realise Dubai will emerge stronger from the crisis and property sector will bounce back,” he added.
Khan termed property bubble talks rubbish and said the market is bit slow at the moment, but stable and moving towards becoming a more matured market.
“When 30-40 projects are announced everyone feels that it is too many announcements and assumes a situation of supply in excess of demand. The market is lucrative here and Shaikh Mohammed’s vision for Dubai is futuristic. What the common eye cannot fathom he envisages and adopts it into a lifestyle, which the real estate market also benefits from,” he said.
To a question about recent steps introduced by the central bank and Real Estate Regulatory Agency, or Rera, to cool the property sector, he said the central bank and the Rera have taken significant steps to secure the real estate market and stabilise it for end users as well as investors.
“Inclusion of more better and firmer laws to secure money will further boost investor confidence in the market,” he said.
Elaborating, he said the central bank should ease mortgage policy to attract investment in realty projects.
“To achieve more stability in the market like in the developed cities — London, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc — banks too should have open up and introduce friendly policies like the ones in those cities. The banks here have to open up and encourage the right understanding of the concept of mortgage. At present many banks suggest credit card loans and auto finance loans, which is not sufficient to encourage people to invest/buy property in the city.”
“An increasing number of people are coming to work in Dubai and establish new businesses, but the banks are yet to attain maturity on how to make mortgage more accessible for the working sector that would like to own homes here rather than rent it out,” he said.
The Royal Estates by SRK
Khan said “The Royal Estates by Shah Rukh Khan” is a Dh2.4 billion mixed-use gated community that comprises of town houses, apartments, retail and commercial units. “The project has 2,000 units and will be developed in three phases. It is located in Dubai Investments Park, which is an upcoming landmark project at Dubai World Central,” he said.
“Legendary bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will launch the project on August 6 and we will deliver the first batch of 40 units to owners in October this year. The work is in full swing to complete the infrastructure in next two months and the owners can move into their housing units in just three months’ time after the launch.”
He said the Royal Estates by SRK will go on sale from the first week of August with apartment units starting at Dh450,000 and townhouses from Dh1.6 million onwards.
Sharing further details about the development, Khan said the project’s first phase costing Dh900 million will have 400 units (200 apartments and 200 townhouses). “It will be completed by first quarter of 2016,” he said, adding that its tendering is under process at the moment.
He said the second phase will deliver another 400 residential units by early 2018 and its tendering process will start in December.
By Muzaffar Rizvi
