Ultra-luxe villas tipped to revive interest in Dubai’s The World

  Amali

A newly announced beachfront villa community could breathe fresh life into The World, the manmade island development off the coast of Dubai.

Amali Properties said on Tuesday that it would build 24 luxury homes across 1,200,000 square feet. The villas will span the islands of Uruguay and São Paolo in the South American section of the map-shaped development, whose progress has stalled since it was launched in 2003.

Amira Sajwani, co-founder of boutique developer Amali, said: “With its innovative design inspired by nature, this project reflects our vision of harmonising ultra-luxury living just minutes from mainland Dubai.”

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The World, which stretches more than 5½ miles from east to west and 4 miles from north to south, is reportedly slated to undergo a transformation in hopes of boosting development.

Its 300 manmade islands, which are branded with individual country names and physically separated from each other by bodies of water, will be grouped to form larger “continents”.

Bidding for the land reclamation required to group the islands is said to have taken place last month, Meed has reported.

Nakheel

Nakheel Properties, the Dubai government-owned real estate developer, launched the project more than 20 years ago, but progress has been hampered by a lack of critical infrastructure and amenities and the difficulty of bringing either to hundreds of small islands. 

Real estate analysts have predicted that the record run in Dubai’s property prices and the squeeze on waterfront homes will bring renewed interest to The World. According to Nakheel, its artificial archipelago added nearly 232 kilometres of beachfront to Dubai’s coastline

Lebanon island was the first to open to the public, in 2014, as a beach club, event venue and day-trip destination.

Kleindienst Group’s Heart of Europe, a cluster of seven islands, is under separate development, including a partnership with IHG Hotels & Resorts for the construction of the InterContinental Resort Portofino. 

The Amali Island villas will come with 50 metres of private beachfront each, “sweeping views of the Dubai skyline, Palm Jumeirah and Atlantis The Royal,” and a variety of amenities from teppanyaki bars to whirlpool baths.

Fintan Flannelly, head of developer sales for Allsopp & Allsopp, said the Amali Island development was only the latest in Dubai’s string of “ultra-luxurious” projects and would “further cement” the city’s reputation for high-end living among super-rich individuals. 

Amali

“The city has consistently ranked among the top choices for millionaire migrations and has seen continuous record-breaking transactions in recent years,” Flannelly said.

The Amali villas could become a template for similar projects on the islands, because The World’s seclusion makes it an exclusive, premium destination for the world’s wealthiest people,  Flannelly said.

It was announced in March that The World’s developer, Nakheel, and its fellow developer Meydan would be merged into Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

“The goal is to create a more financially efficient entity, owning assets worth hundreds of billions and comprising global expertise across various sectors with which we can compete regionally and globally,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

Dubai Holding’s portfolio includes Jumeirah Group, Dubai Properties and Tecom Group, the owner and operator of 10 sector-focused business clusters. Bloomberg reported this week that Dubai Holding had refinanced $8.2 billion in loans held by Nakheel and Meydan before the merger.