Emaar delays Dubai Creek Tower tender over cost issues

Emaar Properties has reportedly pushed back the issuance of the tender for Dubai Creek Tower by at least four months.

The delay has been driven by port closures that increased the cost of construction materials and impacted project pricing, the Arabic-language daily Emarat Al Youm reported, quoting Emaar Properties founder Mohamed Alabbar.

He said the company will wait three to four months to re-evaluate pricing.

In January, Alabbar said Dubai Creek Tower was back on track, adding that a new tender would be issued within three months. He gave no completion timeline.

The project was originally due for completion ahead of Expo 2020 and was designed to overtake the Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest building. The tower was conceived as the anchor project of the Dubai Creek Harbour waterfront development.

The wider Dubai Creek Harbour is being constructed at a cost of AED180 billion ($49 billion) and spans 11 million square metres – three times the size of Downtown Dubai.

Emaar said in May that its property sales in the UAE jumped 22 percent year on year in the first quarter despite the Iran war, supporting double-digit growth in profit and revenue.

As of March 31 its revenue backlog stood at AED163 billion, up 29 percent year on year. Emaar holds a landbank of 600 million square feet, of which more than half is in the UAE.

Earlier this month Emaar announced plans to launch an AED200 billion masterplanned development that will house nearly 150,000 residents. No details on the project have been released.

The developer’s shares closed 0.5 percent lower at AED12.90 on the Dubai Financial Market on Monday, down 8 percent so far this year.

Emirates Power Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai Holding, owns 22.27 percent of Emaar.

Further reading:

• Dubai Holding becomes Emaar’s largest stakeholder
• War upends Saudi real estate push
• Arada bought Reem Hospital to break revenue cycle, says CEO