RAK Properties unit sale revenues surge more than fivefold

Signs are emerging that the UAE’s battered property sector is starting to stabilize with some developers reporting a sharp pickup in activity. (Shutterstock)

• Net income grew fivefold to 64.1 million dirhams ($17.5 million)

DUBAI: RAK Properties has reported a surge in property sales over the first three months of year in the latest sign of a pickup in activity across the sector.
Net income grew fivefold to 64.1 million dirhams ($17.5 million) as the revenue it generated from the sale of properties grew by a similar measure to 110.5 million dirhams from 22 million dirhams a year earlier. Overall revenues grew to 124.3 million dirhams compared to 36.1 million dirhams in the first quarter of 2020.
“Whilst the existing and anticipated effects of the outbreak of COVID-19 on the economies and businesses are expected to evolve in an uncertain manner, we are cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would be brought under control with the numerous vaccines being deployed, and a semblance of ‘new normality’ expected to arise thereafter,” the company said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
Signs are emerging that the UAE’s battered property sector is starting to stabilize with some developers reporting a sharp pickup in activity, especially in the luxury end of the market.
Dubai’s high-end real estate property sales almost doubled in March to 84 units sold – worth around 1.7 billion dirhams ($462.8 million) – compared to the previous month.
Regulatory changes in the UAE, as well as an aggressive vaccination drive have attracted rich home buyers – mainly from Europe – to purchase properties in Dubai and take advantage of the city’s well-coordinated response against COVID-19, say brokers.
Top-end residential properties priced at 10 million dirhams or more made up 2.5 percent of all homes sold in Dubai in March, according to real estate intelligence Property Monitor.