Aldar Properties' Ansam development, which is located on the west side of Yas Island, is due for completion later this year. Courtesy Aldar
Aldar Properties' Ansam development, which is located on the west side of Yas Island, is due for completion later this year. Courtesy Aldar

Aldar gives development update with Yas Island residential handovers on track



Aldar Properties has announced it is on track to hand over its Ansam residential project on Yas Island during the fourth quarter of 2017, while giving updates on other developments in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

The Abu Dhabi-listed developer is forecast to report a slip in second-quarter revenues next month, as rents and sale prices in the emirate continue to slip.

Aldar said yesterday that building facade works for its Ansam development have been completed, with community roadworks and landscaping works due to follow before the end of September, with a phased handover of residences due to be completed by the end of the year.

The developer said infrastructure and non-residential works are "substantially complete" at its West Yas villa community, with the development's school, mosque and retail space having already been handed over.

In Al Raha Beach, the Al Hadeel development, which includes apartments, townhouses and duplexes, is entering its final stages of completion, the developer said, declining to give details on the timing of handovers.

In Al Ain, expansion work on the Al Jimi Mall remains due for completion during 2018, the developer said, expanding the mall's total gross leasable area by 33,000 square metres to 76,000 sq metres.

Aldar Properties is expected to announce second-quarter earnings early next month. Analysts polled by Bloomberg forecast the developer's revenues would slip by an average of 15.3 per cent compared with the second quarter of last year.

The gloomy forecasts come as an economic slowdown in the emirate affects its real estate sector.

Property analysts JLL this month reported further falls in the capital's rental market during the second quarter,  owing to a combination of "increased living costs, cuts in housing allowances and less certainty in the jobs market".

Rents for a typical two-bed apartment dropped 10 per cent year-on-year, while average villa rents are down by 9 per cent, according to JLL. Sales prices for apartments slid 4 per cent year-on-year, and average villa prices by 9 per cent.

The rules on fostering in the UAE

A foster couple or family must:

  • be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
  • not be younger than 25 years old
  • not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
  • be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
  • have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
  • undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
  • A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The more serious side of specialty coffee

While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.

The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.

Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”

One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.

Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.