Dubai's Nakheel Waterfront Charges Forward With Luxury Residential Investment Opportunities

photo credit: p e e p e r

The Nakheel Waterfront project is billed as the largest waterfront development in the world. This ambitious plan to transform 1.4 billion square feet of desert into a home for 1.5 million people is a centerpiece of the Dubai property development phenomenon.

Veneto - upscale real estate investment opportunity

This month Nakheel launched a high-end residential development called Veneto, a community which the developer has billed as one of the most prestigious addresses in Dubai, supposedly rivalling elite residential enclaves throughout the world. Veneto is a master-planned community of villas and low-rise townhouses outside of the urban center of the development, Waterfront City. It is comprised of 1400 villas and townhouses and 1200 low rise apartments. The new development is expected to attract a population of 14,000 people.

A selling point of the Veneto development is that it is a true “waterfront” community with no residence being located more than two kilometers from the coastline. It is touted as an “ultra-chic” development with large open spaces complementing the luxurious homes. Another unique quality of the project will be the development of villas in close proximity to the Waterfront City urban center.

The project boasts of the amenities being created around the development, including “mosques, community centres, nurseries, schools, community pools and health care facilities” as well as “landscaped parks and waterways”. 92 of the properties will have their own private canal-side marina berths.

Nakheel floods Palm Grove Canal - can this really be that environmentally friendly?

In a related story, Nakheel has commenced the flooding of the Palm Grove Canal, one of four waterways which will be created at Waterfront. The waterway will form an island resembling Manhattan in shape, and will be linked to the Gulf at two points. The canal will run along the new Veneto development and will provide the marina berths mentioned above. A detailed map of the waterfront is available on the Nakheel website.

The public relations accompanying the development of the waterfront takes great care to emphasize the pains that are being taken to assure that this development will be performed in an environmentally friendly manner. There is a natural off-shore reef system that could be impacted by this level of waterfront development. Still, it is not clear to me how green a footprint a project with this level of dredging and filling can have even under the best of circumstances. There is an odd lack of real discussion of this issue in the media accounts of the waterfront project, with most articles simply praising in unison the efforts the developers are making to reduce the project’s environmental impact. A more objective evaluation of this issue seems warranted but it is not likely to come from the Dubai news media. Nakheel is essentially a government-owned developer in a nation where the press, while improving, clearly isn’t entirely free from government interference.

Dubai real estate investment- reduced risk, potential high rewards

Dubai seems awash with property investment opportunities, and the new legal protections for investors commented upon in this blog should positively impact the downside of investing in Dubai real estate-investment safety. This week the Wall Street Journal ran an article regarding the “scandals” in Dubai real estate development, including the Damac Palm Springs case. Even a cautionary article such as this one can be read as containing words of encouragement for real estate investors. Take note of this: according to the Journal, Damac investors paid $225 per square foot in 2003 for real estate that may now be worth as much as $893 per square foot. That’s a fabulous return on investment, if the Palm Springs story has a happy ending, as it yet may.

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