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Palm Jebel Ali Investors Seek Answers for Delays

Instead, he is being given the option of moving to a studio apartment in Discovery Gardens, after the completion of villas on the huge reclaimed island was delayed indefinitely by master-developer Nakheel.

“This wasn’t what I wanted,” he said. “I should be offered a property with equivalent amenities, rather than a studio apartment on the other side of Sheikh Zayed Road.”

Medenwaldt was one of around 60 investors who gathered outside Dubai Land Department on Thursday to demand an investigation into Nakheel’s handling of the issue.

Palm Jebel Ali was the second artificial island project to be launched by Nakheel in 2002, and was designed to accommodate up to 250,000 people and add 70km of beachfront to the emirate.

A special feature of the project was several hundred villas built on stilts around the island, arranged to spell out a poem by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

“This was a signature development by a government company. I thought it would be the most secure investment I could find,” said Medenwaldt, who is from Denmark and has been living in Dubai for the last six months in anticipation of the handover of the villas.

Aarti Chana, another Palm Jebel Ali investor and spokeswoman for the group, said that many from her group had been offered to consolidate their investments in International City or Discovery Gardens, as well as the as-yet-unfinished Jumeirah Heights.

“Most of us are end-users and these villas were our dream homes,” she said. “We just want them to start construction again.”

An official from the Land Department confirmed that the issue was being looked into. “We care about the plight of investors and have taken their complaints seriously,” she said. “We are preparing a report on this case.”

Although the land reclamation has been completed on Palm Jebel Ali, construction of the total 1,300 villas is
yet to begin.

“We cannot comment on individual cases other than reinforcing that customers will be given a range of options within the wider Nakheel portfolio to transfer their investment,” said a spokesman for Nakheel.

“Investors have the option of consolidation if they own other properties within the Nakheel portfolio. The advantage of this option to the investor is that Nakheel is able to hand over property to the owner sooner than it might on Palm Jebel Ali and help investors experience an earlier return
on investment.”

The investors, the majority of whom have paid up to 30 per cent toward the total cost of the villas, are also calling on Nakheel to register the plots in the investors’ names with the Land Department and the linking of the remaining payments with construction progress.

Chana also said that Nakheel should re-open transfers in order that individuals can re-sell the investment should they wish.

Another investor, who declined to be named, said that high hopes for the villas had been dashed.“A lot of people dreamed of retiring to these beachside villas,” he said. “Now those dreams are melting like snow in the sun.”

martin@khaleejtimes.com

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