Nakheel's Legacy Nova villa scheme in Dubai draws big interest

Amid increasing concerns about another Dubai property bubble, Nakheel yesterday reported a rush of investors signing up to buy property in its newest off-plan villa scheme.

Nakheel said that investors on Sunday reserved 350 Legacy Nova villas set to be built in Jumeirah Park with sales values in excess of Dh1.4 billion amid scenes reminiscent of the previous property boom.

The company said that investors started queuing to buy the villas on Friday and that demand for the properties exceeded supply, prompting it to increase the number of villas on sale.

"The response to this launch has been phenomenal - there was hardly room to move in our car park and inside our sales centre today," a Nakheel spokesman said yesterday.

"All 350 Legacy Nova Villas sold out just a few hours after we opened our doors for business."

In April, police were called to control crushes caused by hundreds queuing to buy off-plan town houses at Emaar's Mira development near Arabian Ranches and Global Village.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, residential sale prices rose 18 per cent over the 12 months to March.

Last month, IMF officials warned that controls were needed to help guard against a repeat of the boom and bust cycle in the Dubai property market.