Premium hotel plots up for sale in Dubai Marina

Shane McGinley, May 28th, 2012

Dubai Marina could soon see a glut of new hotels, with four plots of land currently up for sale and two four-star hotel owners seeking new buyers.

The Dubizzle online listings website currently has two unnamed hotels in Dubai Marina listed for sale.

A 12 storey, 59,000 sq ft property with 299 rooms has been listed with a price tag of AED320m (US$87m), while another four-star property, which is 129,000 sq ft and claims 100 percent occupancy, has an asking price of AED250m (US$68m).

A number of plots of land are also being offered for hoteliers seeking an entry into the market. The plots range in price from AED120m (US$32m) to AED142m (US$38.6m).

Hoteliers and land owners have increasingly begun to turn to listings websites to source potential buyers. “It is typically very hush, hush. There are only a small number of investors able and willing to invest in hotels,” Matthew Armstrong, property advertising manager at local portal Dubizzle, told Arabian Business earlier this year.

According to the latest research by accountancy firm Ernst & Young, Dubai hotels were some of the best performing in the Middle East and Africa last year.

City-based hotels saw occupancy rise 5 percent to 90 percent and average room yields surged 11.7 percent to US$192. While beachfront hotels saw occupancy drop three percent to 83 percent, average room rates were up 6.2 percent to US$406.

Consultancy firm STR Global also said Dubai has more than 13,300 hotel rooms in its construction pipeline going forward, compared to 5,298 rooms in neighbouring Abu Dhabi.

The city could see a further wave of hotels being offered for sale as owners choose to exit the market rather than compete with newer, branded properties said David Le Bail from real estate consultancy DTZ.

“It is a development cycle and an investment strategy. After a few years, once the asset has reached its optimum profit-making levels, you sell it to optimise your return and then you develop another asset with the cash generated,” he said.