First homes to be delivered at Dubai South within six months, says Damac

The 10-storey, 270 unit NAIA Tenora tower is one of two serviced apartment blocks the company is building in the city which is where Al Maktoum International Airport is located.

NAIA Tenora, a 10-storey, 270 unit tower, will be the first luxury serviced hotel apartments to be opened within the Dubai flagship project, Dubai South. Courtesy Damac Properties

Damac Properties said that it will deliver the first homes in the recently rebranded Dubai South district within the next six months.

The 10-storey, 270 unit NAIA Tenora tower is one of two serviced-apartment blocks the company is building in the 145 square kilometre area, which was previously branded as Dubai World Central. The other building, NAIA Celestia, will be completed in 2017.

The towers will be aimed at housing professionals working on projects to build the Expo 2020 site and its environs, but Damac said that it is also well-positioned in terms of Dubai’s future growth.

The Dubai South site includes the Expo 2020 site, Al Maktoum International Airport, a major logistics park and a large, residential area. It borders Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai Investments Park and by 2020 it will have a dedicated metro station once Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority extends Dubai Metro’s red line.

“We started buying plots in that area as soon as Dubai submitted its bid for the Expo in late 2011, early 2012,” said Damac’s managing director, Ziad El Chaar.

He added that, just as London’s growth in recent years owed a lot to the success of Heathrow airport, the aviation industry has helped to put Dubai on the map. He said that much of Dubai’s early development took place around Dubai International Airport, so the opportunity to be able to build next to Al Maktoum International was one that was too good to miss.

Mr El Chaar said it would deliver more than 1,200 units at the site within the next 18 months – 270 at NAIA Tenora and about 1,000 at NAIA Celestia.

A report from consultancy Oxford Economics for the Dubai government has estimated that Expo 2020 will attract 25 million visitors and create 277,000 jobs. It expects a boost to GDP of more than $38 billion as a result the event.

Property consultancy firm ValuStrat said that momentum has been building in the area in terms of development, especially in the hospitality market. Dubai South had higher numbers of hospitality launches than any other district in the first half of thisyear, with new Hilton, Holiday Inn, Studio M, Millennium and Staybridge Suites properties announced.

These will add about 2,535 new hotel rooms to the area between 2018 and 2019, ValuStrat said.

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