Dubai mortgage firm Amlak developing villa project in Mirdiff

Dubai-based mortgage firm Amlak Finance has completed the first phase of its new residential development project in Mirdiff, it announced on Monday.

The Dhs135m villa project marks the first time Amlak is developing a fully-owned property.

The project consists of 18 land plots with 54 villas, spread across a total area of 136,224 square feet.

Each plot includes three high-end townhouse villas which have four to five bedrooms, private gardens and parking facilities. The project will provide residents access to retail outlets such as City Centre Mirdiff and Mirdiff 35, as well as Mushrif Park.

It is scheduled for completion by Q4 2017 with the handover spread across three phases: phase one will be handed over by August, phase two will be handed over by the end of September, and phase three by the end of November.

As part of the first phase, one mock-villa is completed and available for viewing by potential tenants, a statement said.

The development is part of a larger project in Mirdiff by master developer Meraas.

Arif Alharmi, managing director and CEO of Amlak Finance, said: “This project has been fully managed and developed by Amlak and we believe it is well-suited for the market. It will further enhance the value of our real estate investment and fulfill our commitments to our financiers and shareholders.”

Amlak reported a 94 per cent in net profit in the first quarter of the year to reach Dhs7.5m – down from Dhs123m in Q1 2016.

The company blamed the drop on a “decline in intermittent nature of revenue from sale of real estate”.

Earlier this year, the company also revealed that it was renegotiating a restructuring deal with its financiers.

The firm said it approached financiers in September last year to wave “a number of restrictive covenants” in its original restructuring terms from 2014. The majority of financiers approved the company’s new business plan, it confirmed in January.

Amlak’s shares were suspended from the Dubai Financial Market in November 2008 after the mortgage market dried up and property prices began a near 50 per cent crash.

Its shares resumed trading years later in June 2015.