Palm Jebel Ali to add much needed beachfront properties

Reuters/Matthias Seifert

• Latest Dubai man-made island will add 110 km of coastline
• Development will include 35,000 homes and 80 hotels and resorts
• Nakeel put construction of Palm Jebel Ali on hold before relaunch

A revamped master plan for the billion-dollar Palm Jebel Ali man-made island development in Dubai has been approved, helping to meet demand for prime, residential, beachfront properties.

The 13.4 sq km mega-project – twice the size of Palm Jumeirah – will add 110 km of coastline to the emirate and provide real estate for approximately 35,000 families.

Palm Jebel Ali will also feature over 80 hotels and resorts and will be home to entertainment and leisure facilities.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said the development will “consolidate the city’s emergence as one of the world’s leading metropolises”.

• Nakheel confirms relaunch of Palm Jebel Ali
• Dubai developers relaunch stalled projects as demand surges
• Nakheel secures $4.6bn from Dubai banks to build more islands

Launched in 2002, it was to be one of the three palm-shaped man-made archipelagos that Nakheel planned to build off Dubai’s coast. The established 460-hectare Palm Jumeirah contains some of the emirate’s priciest real estate.

The Palm Jebel Ali project in its original guise was officially cancelled by the government’s Dubai Land Department last year.

Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Shaibani, chairman of Nakheel, said the new master plan is “unprecedented in magnitude and scale”.

Demand for beachfront villas is surging in Dubai, in part because so few coastline development sites remain.

“We’re short of easy-to-activate waterfront development sites. We’ve run out of coastline,” Faisal Durrani, head of Middle East research at consultancy Knight Frank, said in a video interview with AGBI this week.

“It probably is an undersupplied market, especially at the luxury end,” he added (– watch the full interview in the video below).  

Extending the length of the emirate’s public beaches by as much as 400 percent is one of the targets set by the government in its 2040 urban master plan .

Ali Hussein Sajwani, managing director of operations and technology at Damac Properties, previously told AGBI: “When it comes to beachfront land, it’s scarce.

“And with property, it’s all about location, location, location. So, if you focus on prime real estate, it will, of course, hold its value because the land is so scarce.”