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Luxury marina developer, Island Global Yachting (IGY) on Wednesday announced that the first marina on Palm Jumeirah, Anchor Marina is on schedule to open this December.

IGY will also be launching an online auction site to lease berths in this marina to owners and residents of Palm Jumeirah.

Anchor Marina will comprise 590 berths, destined for use by yachts measuring 10 metres to 30 metres in length. The marina will also include concrete pontoons with modern technology such as LED illumination, underwater lighting, wireless internet connections and concierge services.

Anchor Marina will also offer two clubhouses to guests, one on Anchor Marina East for families and the other on Anchor Marina West complete with restaurants.
"We are delighted to announce the scheduled opening of Anchor Marina for this December. It's a fantastic product that will propel Dubai onto the global stage as a yachting destination of choice," Michael Horrigan, chief executive of IGY Middle East and Europe, said.

The auction site has been developed to undertake the auction from November 1 to 7. Owners and residents will be limited to leasing one berth per property and leases will be valid for five years.

Tameer, Dubai-based real estate developer, plans to hand over the residential phase of its Tameer Towers located in Abu Dhabi in June 2011 while the commercial phase will be handed over by December 2011. Tameer's portfolio in Abu Dhabi together with partner Sorouh Real Estate is worth Dh30 billion.

Dr. Abdullah Shaaban, MD, Tameer - Abu Dhabi, said, "Our residential prices range from Dh1.2 million for a studio apartment to as high as Dh40 million for a penthouse. We have a wide range of apartments, fitting all budgets".

Tameer and Sorouh have finalized an agreement with a joint venture comprising Al Habtoor Engineering, Murray & Roberts and Al Rajhi Projects to construct the Tameer Towers in Abu Dhabi at a cost of Dh6 billion bringing the total cost of the project to Dh8 billion.

Nakheel, a Dubai World company and one of the world's largest real estate developers, has announced that its 2008 sales are already showing a threefold increase on 2007's full-year figures. In the year to date, more than 6,100 Nakheel units have been sold (97%) or reserved (3%) exceeding the developer's own targets. Unit sales in 2008 comprised more than two thirds apartment sales (68%), over a quarter villa sales (27%) and 5% land plot sales. These units were released in 13 launches between 1 January and 31 August 2008. A further 2,650 units are set to be released in 11 additional sales launches scheduled for the final quarter of 2008.

Manal Shaheen, Director, Sales, Marketing and Customer Service, Nakheel, said, "Demand for Nakheel's Dubai properties continues to rise across residential and commercial sectors. We see no signs of this demand abating despite recent gloomy predictions from one or two analysts. If you compare the expansive vision of Dubai to the construction capacity constraint, which is currently around 80,000 dwellings per year, and if you believe that population growth will continue to rise by 6-7% per annum, then by 2020 we will still not have enough residences to meet demand."

The three Nakheel developments in Dubai accounting for the largest volume of sales were Badrah Manara apartments, with almost a third of sales by volume (32.2%); apartments in Lake District at International City (15.2% of the total) and Al Furjan villas (14.7% of sales by volume). Nakheel is providing 50% of Dubai's residential supply by building homes for 3 million people ranging from affordable housing to the ultimate in luxury living.

Sobha Group, Indian real estate group with projects in Dubai, has acquired a plot on the Sheikh Zayed Road for the development of its first hotel property in Dubai. The realty group, which announced plans to launch Sobha Hotels at Arabian Travel Market in May 2008, has plans to develop over ten 5-star properties in the next 3 years, with 2 hotels earmarked for Dubai, 6 for India and 1 each in Oman and Zanzibar.

Ajay Rajendran, Vice Chairman, Sobha Group, said, "It is our intention to have 4 hotels operational by 2011 with another 11 properties under construction. We are thrilled to have secured a prominent plot in TECOM which will afford our guests easy access to the business zones of Dubai Media and Internet Cities, as well as being in close proximity to the Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai".