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Dubai Buyers Still Love Emaar Villas as 2018 Sales Almost Double

Dubai Buyers Still Love Emaar Villas as 2018 Sales Almost Double

(Bloomberg) -- Dubai’s property market’s woes aren’t denting appetite for villas just yet.

Emaar Properties PJSC said on Thursday revenue from villa sales jumped 90 percent last year to 7.84 billion dirhams ($2.13 billion), the biggest increase across its property segments, according to a breakdown of the 2018 earnings originally released last month.

Home prices and rents have dropped by as much as a third since peaking in 2014 in Dubai, as the Middle East’s financial and commerce hub struggles with an economic slowdown. The Real Estate & Construction Index on Dubai’s stock market fell 39 percent last year, its lowest level since the global financial crisis in 2008.

Emaar’s earnings bucked the trend. The developer of the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai reported a 10 percent increase in profit to 6.11 billion dirhams, exceeding analysts’ estimates. Its shares have advanced 13 percent this year, the best start to a year since 2014.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abeer Abu Omar in Dubai at aabuomar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Blaise Robinson at brobinson58@bloomberg.net, Phil Serafino, Alaa Shahine

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.