Omniyat Aims For A Costliest Penthouse Treble

Dubai: Omniyat is aiming to sweep the top three spots as the developer to have sold the costliest penthouses in Dubai. It has already cleared the first position, selling a 29,000 square feet (including external area) unit for Dh102 million to a Gulf investor last year. This was the costliest deal in Dubai last year and the most anyone has paid for a penthouse.

Now, this year, the developer hopes to get a grip on the other two spots as well, setting base prices of Dh91 million (for a 24,000 square foot unit) and Dh88 million (for 21,000 square feet of ultra-luxury).

All three units are on the One Palm, its project on the Palm which is heading for an end of the year completion. The developer hopes to generate Dh2 billion in sales from the project, which features 90 odd apartments.

“For the two unsold penthouses, we have received multiple expressions of interest and there’s a lot of back-and-forth going on between us and these prospective owners,” said Mohammad Hmeid, general manager at LIV, Omniyat’s sales and marketing arm. “These are mostly related to the details of what they want to have as fit-outs, etc. These discussions will take a while and we are not pressed for time.

“We have of late seen new interest coming in for the One Palm — selling the costliest unit [in Dubai] sure creates a strong word of mouth.”

As of now, just over 70 per cent of the available units have been sold. On the project side, the topping out was done some time ago and the facade work has reached the ninth floor. The developer is also putting up two show homes, to keep the momentum going.

It would fit in with a wider pattern that developers and property consultants are talking about — that since November, there is a noticeable interest among high-net-worth investors for upscale projects in Dubai, preferably those that are ready or are in their final stretch of construction.

Of late, that interest has also extended to offplan launches, with Emaar’s Waterfront, where tower units carried a price tag of Dh2,000 a square foot, generating quite a bit of demand. A top official at Signature, the developer of the super-premium 118 at the Downtown, also said appetite for Dubai luxury realty was back after most of 2017 had buyers chasing mid-market options. At the 188, Signature has two duplexes upwards of Dh55 million.

According to market sources, Nakheel too should shortly be coming up with a full-fledged mega launch — that of its Raffles branded twin-tower on the Palm.

Project launch mode

For Omniyat, the coming days will also see it get back into new project launch mode. Over the last 12 to 18 months, it had focused on completing some of its high-profile ventures, such as the Opus (designed by the late Zaha Hadid).

Early next month, it is all set to launch a new project, a mixed-use venture.

“Our aim has been to launch three, have three under construction, and have three ready for handover at any given time,” said Hmeid. “Of late, we had been focused on existing projects — that’s changing with our upcoming launch and to be followed by another.

“We have never got stuck into community-style developments and which require a lot of time. Instead, our focus has been steadfast on individual, high-value projects — be it in residential or hospitality. And that’s worked for us consistently.”

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