Reem, Yas and Saadiyat are main focus

The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council stand.

Reem, Yas and Saadiyat islands here were the main focus of real estate developers last year, and very likely this year too, with dozens of new residential towers, malls and other community services about to be built in these hot spots.
During the opening day of Cityscape in Abu Dhabi it is tradition for the Urban Planning Council (UPC) to announce its latest approved building projects.
According to Mohamed Al Khadar, executive director of UPC, in the last quarter of 2015, 27 projects have been approved, totalling nine million square meters of construction area. These bring the total number of projects approved in 2015 to 101, being built over 13.58 million square meters of land.
"This was an increase of 26 percent from 2014, which was really surprising," pointed out Al Khadar.
"It is too early to say, but the way it looks now, we are expecting similar number of projects for 2016," he added. Despite the drop in oil prices, the real estate sector kept going strong, especially when it came to large-scale developments. In fact, UPC only approves projects that are at least 40,000 square meters in gross ing the Municipality's approval.
"None of the projects we received were rejected. In fact, we never reject projects, but work with developers, educating them when necessary and amend the projects when need it," Al Khadar told Khaleej Times.
One of the largest projects approved late last year was Reem Mall, which will span over 185,000 square meters. The US$ 1 billion mall will include 450 retail units, a multi-screen cinema and world's largest indoor snow-play park.
Another major development is Al Fahid Island, located between Saadiyat and Yas islands. Just like Saadiyat, Al Fahid too will be a luxurious residential community, a resort-like setting along the waterfront. The development is split into five phases, of which Phase one has so far received detailed planning approval.
The largest master plan approved by the UPC at the end of last year is the Al Khrair Emirati Housing project in Al Ain. With a gross floor area of 3.3 million square metres, this residential project represents one third of the construction area approved in the quarter. The residential community will comprise of 3,017 single-family villa plots, as well as community facilities and services.
Of the 27 projects approved in the last quarter of 2015, two were in Al Ain, four in the Western Region and 21 in the Abu Dhabi metropolitan area - with 11 projects on Abu Dhabi island and ten on Abu Dhabi mainland.
The UPC, which is also responsible for managing the emirate's mandatory Estidama Pearl system for sustainable design, construction and operation, announced that in the last three months of 2015 it had awarded Estidama Pearl Design Rating to 203 buildings in the emirate.
Most of these were one Pearl (compulsory for private buildings) and two Pearls (minimum required for government building) and just one building went on to reach three Pearls - a residential building now under construction in Masdar City.
Despite complaints from citizens, many predominantly Emirati residential areas of Abu Dhabi, such as Al Falah, Shakhbout City, Shamkha or Al Adla, still lack community facilities, particularly shops, cafes, parks, hospitals, even schools.
"In 2013 we did a study for community facilities in 16 different areas of Abu Dhabi, showing what is needed in each one of them, and the study was handed over to the municipality," explained Humaid Al Marzooqi, planning manager at UPC.
- silvia@khaleejtimes.com