Dubai Property News
Dubai airport passenger numbers up 19% in April
April was the fifth consecutive month with more than five million passengers passing through the Dubai airport. Dubai International recorded nine straight months of double-digit growth as passenger numbers in April jumped 18.7 per cent to 5.41 million over the same period last year, operator Dubai Airports said in a statement on Monday. It added that April was the fifth consecutive month with more than five million passengers passing through the world’s second busiest airport for international passenger traffic. India led the April growth at the Dubai airport with a total of 672,557 passengers, followed by the UK (419,053) and Saudi Arabia (405,695), Doha (207,146), London (201,587) and Jeddah (151,517), as per the report. The year to date traffic, meanwhile, increased by 16.3 per cent to 21.9 million passengers compared to 18.8 million recorded in the first four months of 2012, Dubai Airports said, adding that the largest increase in total passenger numbers was recorded on the Western European routes (+207,120 passengers). And the Middle Eastern routes that were affected by political instability until the beginning of 2013 recorded moderate growth in April (+23,365). Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in a statement that growth should continue at a similar pace in the next quarter and beyond. “Accordingly we are continually increasing capacity at Dubai International, the most recent example of which was the opening of the first phase of expansion at Terminal 2,” he said. Aircraft movements at the airport, meanwhile, increased by 6.9 per cent to 30,469 compared to 28,503 recorded in April 2012, as per the estimates, while year to date aircraft movements totalled 121,599, an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to 114,517 during the same period in 2012. On the cargo front, April saw freight volumes increase by 7.3 per cent to 199,985 tons compared to 186,385 tons in April 2012. And the year to date cargo totalled 784,832 tons, up 11.5 per cent to 703,826 tons during the first four months last year. Continue reading
Viceroy plans to open Dubai hotel
The Viceroy Hotel Group is the latest high-profile company to announce plans to open a new resort in Dubai.Bosses at the firm hope to have a hotel up and running in the swanky Palm Jumeirah region by the fourth quarter of 2016 and the development will cost a cool $1 billion (£657 million).This is one part of town that is attracting plenty of interest from property investors, thanks mainly to the phenomenal buildings that have cropped up in recent years and the fact it is so close to popular areas like Dubai Marina. It is also a stone's throw from the International Financial Centre.Somewhat surprisingly, this will be Viceroy's first venture in Dubai, although its Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi resort has been a success.Bill Walshe, chief executive of the VHG Viceroy Hotel Group, thinks this new building will “set a new bar in beachfront luxury”.”This property marks our first foray into the Dubai market and is a milestone in our growth in the region,” he remarked.”Our market entry is perfectly timed and our partnership brings together the collaboration of two success stories in the real estate and hospitality industries.”The hotel will contain 221 “signature Viceroy Residences”, each providing beautiful views over the Arabian Sea. As you would expect from such a luxurious hotel in this exclusive part of town, guests will be treated to world-class facilities and sumptuous restaurants.It seems barely a week goes by at the moment without a top hotel chain unveiling plans to open new resorts in the UAE.Earlier this month, the Wyndham Hotel Group announced it would build a 33-storey tower that will cover nearly 6,800 sq ft, providing 497 guest rooms, 251 luxurious suites and almost 2,500 square feet of spa and leisure facilities.Construction activity had declined in the UAE during the global financial crisis, but the ball is most definitely rolling again and firms realise that hotel room rates are rising all the time in Dubai. Continue reading
Dubai rents ‘will continue to rise’
From a property investor's point of view, it is always encouraging to see rental rates increasing in Dubai, as this suggests that demand for accommodation is strong.Landlords in many parts of the city were forced to lower their asking prices when the global economy took a turn for the worse, but it seems that things are now firmly back on track.Farouk Soussa, the chief economist in the Middle East for Citigroup, told the National that increasing rents are something of a trend in Dubai.”Going forward we expect further increases in rent in Dubai as we forecast house prices to rise by 35 per cent this year and rents to be not far off it,” he was quoted as saying.According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, housing costs in April 2013 rose at their fastest pace for more than three years.Dubai certainly appears to be a more profitable market than Abu Dhabi, as figures suggested that rents in the latter fell last month.”The rate of population growth in Abu Dhabi is still short of Dubai and the investment interest in Dubai's property market is higher than Abu Dhabi,” Mr Soussa added.Unsurprisingly, certain parts of Dubai attract more interest from lodgers than others and it seems that more exclusive areas like Dubai Marina are particularly popular.Earlier this year, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency revealed that The Greens is another region that is highly desirable.The cost of renting a studio apartment in this part of town went up by an incredible 22 per cent between the end of 2012 and March 2013, Emirates 24/7 reports.In addition to this, owners of one-bedroom apartments hiked their rents by 15 per cent over the same period, while two-bedroom properties were 28 per cent more expensive.Although there has been a sharp increase in the number of new buildings being erected across the city, experts predict that rising population figures will ensure that rents continue to go upwards in the near future.The First Group can help you find some of the best properties in Dubai Continue reading
