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Construction gathers pace at Emaar South

Dubai South was the number 1 off-plan market in Dubai last year. This was driven by both government as well as private sector developers launching mid-income projects. Emaar South, a joint venture between Emaar Properties and Dubai South, has seen a substantial number of units sold at its 7sqkm master community.
"Contracts worth Dh1.5 billion have been awarded and are currently under construction," Fadi El Borno, general manager - joint ventures of Emaar Properties, told Khaleej Times during a site visit of Emaar South on Monday.
This includes townhomes, apartments and villas abutting a championship golf course. The Urbana 1 townhomes will be ready by Q3 2019 whie Urbana 2 and 3 townhomes as well as Golf Views apartments will be handed over by the end of 2019. Meanwhile, the Golf Links villas will be ready in Q2 of 2020.
Around 1,400 units are under construction, including apartments, townhouses, villas and a championship golf course. Infrastructure work is also in progress on roads, utilities (132kV power station), deep and shallow services.
"Around 2.4 million sqft is currently under construction, which accounts for 70 per cent of the total GFA of phase 1," said El Borno. Emaar South will eventually include 25,000 residential units.
Phase 1 of the 18-hole championship golf course and landscape contracts are in their final stages of tendering, he informed. The first phase of the golf course will include a 3-hole course and a driving range. "Emaar South has a phased masterplan, so construction will have little impact on residents. Whatever has been launched has been substantially sold out. Demand has been healthy for the recently launched Saffron townhouses and construction will commence soon. The project is in the tendering stage," added El Borno.
The Saffron townhouses are priced from Dh1 million and upwards, according to market stakeholders. 
"Getting closer to Expo 2020, Dubai South is the best opportunity for both private sector and government developers to bring 'affordable' housing to the table. It is hard to ascertain from data patterns whether investors or end-users are driving sales. However, there is a lot less concentrated purchases happening in Dubai South now. It is mostly single unit purchases, which is usually indicative of end-user activity," said Hussain Alladin, head of IR and research at Global Capital Partners. 
Emaar South has seen buyer interest coming in from investors and end-users, both international as well as local. 
"Smaller families have been buying the townhomes, especially millennials," added the Emaar executive. Other facilities in Emaar South include a retail centre, boulevard, schools, hotels and a healthcare facility, making it a fully integrated community.
The boulevard will also be ready by 2019 and Emaar's leasing team has approached prospective tenants to let out space in the community centre.
"There will be 2 K-12 schools, of which 1 will be ready by phase 1. The operator will be announced soon," observed El Borno.
The community will be well-connected by the public bus transport system. The Dubai Expo will be the closest Metro station, which is less than a 10-minute drive away. 
- deepthi@khaleejtimes.com