Tenants lined up at Al Rayyana

Teachers, nurses and French military personnel will dominate at the Al Rayyana development

Lucrative deal: a large part of Sorough Real Estate's profit were accumulated through the sale of plots of land in Shams Abu Dhabi.

Teachers, nurses and French military personnel will dominate the tenant mix at Sorouh Real Estate's Al Rayyana development.

Sorouh yesterday revealed it had signed deals with corporate tenants to rent out 72 per cent of the new gated community close to Abu Dhabi Golf Course. It is about to begin marketing the remainder to the general public.

Abu Dhabi's second-largest developer signed block leasing deals with three tenants for 523 apartments - comprising 34 per cent of the development - while it had signed heads of terms agreements with more companies to take another 584 flats, making up a further 38 per cent of the scheme.

Défense Conseil International Group, a French government-related defence company, has already taken 287 of the larger flats on the estate at what the developer described as "prevailing market rates" on a 30-year lease.

One of Abu Dhabi's key education providers has signed a one-year deal to take another 189 apartments at the project for teacher accommodation. And the developer said it had signed an agreement with a healthcare provider to rent out another 25 flats on a two-year lease.

Sorouh, which is considering a merger with rival developer Aldar, said the block-leasing deals were awarded as a result of a competitive tender. It also said it would begin a "soft" marketing campaign to lease the remaining 464 apartments at the scheme. Eventually the gated estate will be home to about 3,000 people, mostly expats, it said.

The developer is pitching the low-rise development on the emirate's mainland at Abu Dhabi's middle market, with one-bedroom apartments renting for about Dh75,000 (US$20,419) and three-bedroom apartments with a golf-course view going for about Dh160,000.

"We don't expect a huge fall in rents and capital values for good-quality housing but maybe there will be some movement for the older buildings in the city," said Paul Middleton, the executive director for sales and marketing at Sorouh.

"There are some areas - such as health and education - where we can expect quite large influxes of people in the next few years and many organisations are looking at attractive bulk leasing deals."

The news comes a day after Tourism Development & Investment Company announced it had leased out 35 of the 50 luxury apartments at its Eastern Mangroves scheme on Abu Dhabi island.

Prices for the three and four-bedroom apartments start at Dh260,000.