Hundreds of property owners around the "Race to Dubai" golf course are still waiting to move in more than eight months after the tournament concluded because Nakheel has not completed the infrastructure.
With most of its large-scale construction sites at a standstill, the developer of Jumeirah Golf Estates hopes to settle about Dh4 billion (US$1.08bn) of claims from its contractors by the middle of this month. Jumeirah Golf Estates is not among the six "priority" projects that Nakheel said last week would shortly resume.
Irish-owned CHI Development completed 121 villas at the Dh750 million Lime Tree Valley villa community shortly before the Race to Dubai golf championship last November. It is the first of 10 communities planned at the Earth and Fire courses to have been completed.
But just a week after the tournament finished, Nakheel's parent company, Dubai World, asked creditors for a six-month standstill as it sought to restructure $23.5bn of debt.
Work on roads and utilities at the Earth and Fire courses, where 1,000 villas are planned, stopped shortly after Dubai World's November 25 debt announcement.
"Without infrastructure, you can't hand the homes over," said Roger Wakeham, the director of development at CHI.
"They're commissioned, but we need to have all the approvals and compliance certificates before you can hand them over properly, especially if the homes are mortgaged."
Other projects at the development, such as Whispering Pines, which was due for completion in March, have also been held up, a homeowner at the project said.
Prices have also fallen across the development: a three-bedroom villa at Whispering Pines is now selling for about Dh4m, compared with the original Dh5.4m, an internet listing shows.
Meanwhile, an investor trying to sell a five-bedroom villa at Lime Tree Valley is asking for Dh6.4m.
Nakheel took over Jumeirah Golf Estates from its sister company Leisurecorp in the middle of last year as Dubai World started its restructuring.
The majority of the villas sold at the Earth and Fire courses are being built by sub-developers, with a handful planned by Nakheel.
Meanwhile, two other golf courses - Wind and Water - planned at the development are on hold.
The golfers Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Greg Norman and the course designer Pete Dye were signed up to design the courses when the development was launched in 2005.
A Nakheel representative said the company was "in the final stages of assessment of construction completion requirements [at Jumeirah Golf Estates]", adding that it "should be in a position to communicate revised completion dates to stakeholders within the coming months".
The developer said last week the six projects on its priority list were Jumeirah Park, Al Furjan, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Islands Mansions, Jumeirah Heights Clusters and Al Badrah.
However, in a newsletter sent to property investors at Jumeirah Golf Estates in May, Nakheel assured them that "a significant proportion of the cash being made available by the Dubai Financial Support Fund (DFSF) will be used by Jumeirah Golf Estates to complete the development of those phases nearing completion, providing immediate assurance for customers in these phases".
Nakheel has already started paying its smaller trade creditors, those that are owed Dh500,000 or less, as part of a wide-ranging offer made to them in March when the Dubai Government said it would inject $8bn into the developer through the DFSF.
Mr Wakeham said that while there had been a lot of frustration among property owners at Lime Tree Valley, most of them had been understanding about the delay.
"A lot of people have been affected by the recession ? Obviously there's a lot of frustration, but there's also been an element of pragmatism. Everyone needs time to recover and get used to the new reality."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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
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