Dubai’s Emaar Properties sees profit jump thanks to strong retail market

Dubai’s Emaar Properties reported an 8.5 per cent increase in net profit on Tuesday on the back of strong contributions from its shopping malls business despite a weaker property market.

Dubai’s residential property market is showing few signs of rebounding from a three-year downturn caused by modest demand and increasing supply from new developments.

Read: Dubai’s Emaar Properties sees Q4 profit dip amid higher costs

The developer, in which the government of Dubai owns a minority stake, made a net profit of Dhs1.5bn ($408m) in the three months to March 31, it said in a bourse statement.

That compares with a profit of Dhs1.38bn in the year-earlier period.

Read: Dubai’s Emaar enters $8.2bn partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Aldar

SICO Bahrain had forecast Emaar would make a quarterly profit of Dhs1.37bn.

Emaar said its development arm recorded property sales of Dhs3.9bn during the first quarter. In the same period a year ago Emaar had said property sales were Dhs6bn.

Emaar Development only listed in the last quarter of 2017.

Emaar said its quarterly profit was Dhs1.67bn before taking into account the impact of listing its real estate development arm last year.

Read: Dubai’s Emaar Development falls on listing

That unit recently reported a first quarter profit increase of 62 per cent to Dhs819m.

Emaar Properties quarterly revenue was Dhs5.59bn compared to Dhs4bn in the same year ago period.