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ajb wrote:In a rising market surely most people would be more than happy not to settle and take possession of their units?

Well, there's two factors to consider.

Factor #1 - If you've bought it for residential purposes, you're not going to be happy about having to pay rent and 80% of a mortgage on a tower that is 18 months late.

Factor #2 - If you've bought it for investment purposes, you're not going to be happy about the delay in getting your return on investment period. Increased short term valuation is one thing, but many investors get in to it for the leasing potential, not for the on-sell.

On top of this, there are other things to consider such as deposit bonds etc.

Was able to recover this post from my browser history! Had typed this yesterday; unfortunately disappeared due to the HDD failure!



dannyM wrote:

One more thing about the completion dates for ocean heights. Could you give me some milestone dates such as, when does the construction of the main structure start, or when roughly, will the tower be topping out?

Piling should finish in about two months or so. The main contractor will then be awarded and construction work will start immediately. They take this one year or whatever since launch whilst selling etc to go over tenders / choose the builders etc.
The tower is definately going to be built from what I know; Damac wouldn't still be selling apartments and doing piling etc if it wasn't.
I don't know about any other tower being built in Dubai Marina from Damac - but maybe its Ocean Heights 2 (I've heard some talk about this, and people are calling Ocean Heights as Ocean Heights 1).

Two primary reasons developments get delayed are:
1 - The Master Developer hands over the plot for construction at a later date than promised (obviously this doesn't apply today with Dubai Marina, but generally...)
2 - The contractors etc delay or mess things up. Damac fired the contractors for one of its projects - think it was Marina Terrace or The Waves due to unnecessary delays, low quality and other stuff I'm not too sure about.
Don't worry about criticism; I take it as a lesson. I'm still fairly new here, and I'm sure I'll hear lots of good and bad; just like every company!

FYI, we're launching a new project called Tucson Gardens in Jumeriah Village South - it will be similiar to Emirates Gardens 1 & 2. Smile
I have nothing to do with developing or launching projects - I just (try and) sell them. Smile

Ian wrote:

Factor #1 - If you've bought it for residential purposes, you're not going to be happy about having to pay rent and 80% of a mortgage on a tower that is 18 months late.

Ian, fyi, if someone takes a mortgage here (atleast for Damac's projects), they only have to start paying after the project has been handed over to the buyer. They pay nothing until then, except the remaining % that the bank won't mortgage (ie - maybe the 10-15% deposit).

I'm new and still learning so will try and keep answering your questions as best I can!

ineedacoolnick wrote:Piling should finish in about two months or so. The main contractor will then be awarded and construction work will start immediately. They take this one year or whatever since launch whilst selling etc to go over tenders / choose the builders etc.

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to hear. My friend has had some trouble trying to get these sort of answers over the phone.

ineedacoolnick wrote:I don't know about any other tower being built in Dubai Marina from Damac - but maybe its Ocean Heights 2 (I've heard some talk about this, and people are calling Ocean Heights as Ocean Heights 1).

That's probably the one. I found it on www.aedas.com, I think they're the architects. They say this is 460m, I mean holy cow that's taller than sears tower. I don't know if you know this but most supertall towers have a variety of features to make them more efficient such as a special shape to counteract wind tunnels, doubledecker elevators, sky lobbies, etc. Does this one have any of these?
I've heard this tower could be squeezed in next to infinity tower, seems like an awfully small plot to build such a large tower on.
I think this is it.

ineedacoolnick wrote:Two primary reasons developments get delayed are:
1 - The Master Developer hands over the plot for construction at a later date than promised (obviously this doesn't apply today with Dubai Marina, but generally...)

*cough* nakheel *cough*

Glad the info. helped!
I know that Ocean Heights will have hi-speed elevators, but nothing about double decker ones were mentioned. Not sure about the other features, but it will definately be an 'efficent & safe' tower.
Yes, AEDAS are the architechts - from the Hong Kong office fyi.

dannyM wrote:

*cough* nakheel *cough*

You mean Emaar in this case!


I'll try and ask more about Ocean Heights 2 and will let you know if I find out anything.

Do you think its rising, I think its about to go crash bang very soon. There are simply too many beds and not enough takers. My advice to anyone wanting to invest in property in Dubai is:

1. Wait till its built. Buying off plan can go badly wrong if the development turns out to be a dog.
2. If you are making spare cash in Dubai and you are an expat and you want to invest in property, do it in your own country, the market here has a long way to go before it settles down. Many investors who bought off plan in Spain have lost money, the same will happen here.
3. If all you want is a cheap holiday home for the next 20 years and you have spare cash, and you are not buying in the hope of capital appreciation then push on, good luck.