Infill Developments Now Key for Investors in Dubai

The trend for Infill developments is now growing in the heavily populated areas of Dubai as developers look to maximise existing infrastructure.

Infill development is where vacant or underused parcels of land within existing urban areas are developed.

These infill developments can offer good opportunities for both developers and investors alike, as it enables them to capitalise on areas that already have established transportation and infrastructure networks, as well as surrounding amenities and employment hubs.

These areas will already have built up demand for both property purchase and rental, allowing overseas property investors to get an immediate return on their investment, without having to wait for the whole area to be developed.

Property developer Maher Sweid commented: ‘In recent years, Dubai’s main population hubs have crossed a critical threshold with the urban landscape becoming a highly developed environment where few pockets of vacant land remain.

‘While developers continue to expand and launch projects inland (away from the coast), there has also been a resurgence of activity within more developed areas such as Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) and Downtown.’

The new infill developments do however come with new developer social responsibilities to ensure that the new infill development fits in to the existing area.

Sweid said: ‘There is clearly an opportunity for this kind of development in Dubai, but the onus is on the developer to recognise the opportunities and to work responsibly to create something that not only complements the surrounding context – but that is seamlessly woven into the urban fabric.’

The JLT district is seen as a prime example of a community with great infill opportunities, having an established population base, a burgeoning food and beverage (F&B) scene, and superior connectivity to the rest of the city through new road links and two metro and tram stations.

The latest figures from Core showed JLT as the only central and established apartment district to report growth in Q2 2017 (two per cent). The report also revealed that buyers get eight per cent more space for their dirham in JLT compared to Dubai Marina.

The figures also showed that the JLT area offered strong rental yields of between 7 and 8 per cent for property investors.