15 May, 2009

Palm Market News

Palm Jumeirah:

This week has seen some reasonable activity on Palm Jumeirah. Both Sales and Lettings have been active and most agents are seeing a pick up.

The Sales department have seen viewings on Shorelines, and the villas. There are requests for Tiara but this is probably just 'laminate floor treading' at this stage. Tiara is lovely but more likely to perform better in the lettings department until Title Deeds are available.
Specifically, we have had offers on Signature Villas form our Russian friends. Smart Russians at that. They sold their Signature villa last year for $6m and are looking to buy back in at $3m. They are going to have to pay closer to $4m for what they want but still shows that 2008/2009 was a good time for some.
M frond low number Garden Home has sold this week for 6.5m AED and Canal Cove 4 bed for 4.5m AED ( take that fork out of your Thigh SC )
The prices aren't making the sellers jump for joy but there is activity and please remember that there is still not a mortgage in sight. When there is finance expect a nice little bounce.

The Lettings Department is very busy with increased viewings. I don't think there are many new tenants floating around as most people are looking to upgrade or get a better rate than they are currently paying. Landlords who already have a tenant should be careful not to push the rates on renewal as the tenants have much more choice and will simply leave.
Tiaras are renting for 130k per annum for a 1 bed with 3 beds touching 240/250k pa. Gardens homes are not much more than 300k p.a with Signatures now less than 500k p.a
Shorelines are doing quite well as tenants enjoy the restaurants and amenities these apartments offer with less than i thought hopping over to Tiara. Shorelines are still flavour of the month with 1 bed sea views reaching 130k p.a .

Over in Palm Jebel Ali it looks like Nakheel are about to announce another delay. They told me last week to expect a very very long delay. Not sure if this means 2 years or 5 but for sure some of you are going to be very upset.

Finally, I am going to be an anorak this week and try out the Palm Monorail. There are only 2 stops at the base of the Palm and Atlantis right now. They are probably thinking of a new name fot the Trump station when it opens. It is 25 dhs round trip, and i will get a 30 dhs coffee at Atlantis to make it worth while. In these times of financial stress I hope you all appreciate this investment I am making for you.