Confessions of a Real Estate Agent August 2018
Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai Square – the culmination of everything learned from developing the Dubai Marina and the Burj Khalifa Downtown area.
How do you begin designing a city within a city housing 200,000 residents that functions and behaves as a single community within the multi-national metropolis that is modern Dubai?
This is the challenge facing the architects and builders who will create one of the world’s largest developments along the banks of the Dubai Creek.
From just over 183,000 residents in 1975 to over 3 million today, and with a population demographic comprising more than 200 nationalities, Dubai’s total population is expected to exceed 5 million residents by 2030.
As the city matures, so do its early residential developments. As increasing number of new people entering Dubai now demand world-class accommodation, they are no longer interested in the older residences built 15-20 years’ ago.
Emaar in partnership with the Dubai government is well on the way to design and construct Dubai Creek Harbour: a new multi-use city with the world’s newest tallest building at its heart, Tower, featuring multiple observation decks with 360° views of Dubai Creek Harbour and the city beyond.
Located at the northern foot of the Dubai Creek Tower, Dubai Square seeks to re-invent the modern shopping mall by returning to the design of the old Arabian markets, the souks, which still can be viewed in specific areas in both Bur Dubai and Deira. The old markets were built upon a simple grid system which marked out square blocks of shops with each block selling similar items such as spice, gold, and hardware.
Overall, the project figures are remarkable – over $5.5 billion of investment with a total retail space area approaching 1 million square metres.
Another significant recent announcement has been the decision to build the largest Chinatown in the Middle East as part of the Dubai Creek Harbour development.
The number of Chinese tourists in the UAE has grown strongly in recent years with the Dubai’s Department of Tourism recently announcing the number of overnight tourists from China has jumped 119% since 2014.
After the UAE granted Chinese tourists the ability to obtain visas on arrival in 2016, the number of tourists increased 41% the following year.
And where the tourists visit, investment money follows shortly after. The Dubai real estate is steadily gaining interest among savvy Chinese investors. This extends to the brick-and-mortar assets, contracting industry, as well as construction finance. The Chinese were the fourth most active real estate investors in Dubai in the first half of 2017, according to consultancy Knight Frank. In the past two decades, more than 8,200 real estate transactions have been completed by Chinese buyers with roughly one quarter of those transactions taking place in the past two years alone, bringing in more than Dh3 billion.
The first residents will be moving into the Dubai Creek Residences, a six-tower residential project in February 2019.
Due to be ready for Dubai Expo 2020, the base or pile cap of the Dubai Creek Tower was completed in May 2018, two months ahead of schedule, the entire concept is already morphing from a grand idea into reality – just the way Dubai likes it.