Emaar Refunds Investors Over Dubai Creek Tower Project

In Dubai, everything is bigger, better and finer. From the world’s tallest building to the world’s largest shopping mall – this city takes the challenge and loves to surpass expectations. Dubai is a thriving megalopolis and unquestionably a destination of the future where you can find magnificent structures, intriguing developments and the world’s most iconic structures. Therefore, Dubai real estate attracts a significant number of foreign investors from all over the globe.

And right after the global pandemic, strong demand has been observed for?luxury properties in Dubai?from foreign investors. A majority of these property buyers search local online property portals to check for properties for sale in Dubai.

Dubai Creek Tower – Emaar’s controversial project

Dubbed the “Icon of the 21st?Century”, Dubai Creek Tower is advertised to be a spectacular tourist attraction. It is considered the main focal point of?Dubai Creek Harbour?a symbolic icon of Dubai’s futuristic and visionary leadership.

The construction of Dubai Creek Tower was suspended in 2020 and even two years later, there has been no indication to restart construction. Though Emaar has yet to officially comment on the status of Dubai Creek Tower yet the development company has removed all the mentions and rendered images of the tower on its official website.

However, the practice is still continued by a number of?real estate brokers in Dubai?that several real estate projects planned in Dubai Creek Harbour are still advertised to have mesmerizing and panoramic views of the Dubai Creek Tower.

Harbour Gate Tower is a residential community designed in Dubai Creek Harbour offers a tranquil lifestyle to its potential residents. The project also promises to offer majestic views of the waterfront and the Dubai Creek Tower – the world’s future tallest building.

Emaar halted construction

A Reuters report?mentioned in 2020 that the premier developer “Emaar” had to suspend work on the tower along with several surrounding residential projects. The reason behind this was the major blow from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, Emaar’s founder and then chairman Mohammed Alabbar also confirmed that they halted several new developments. “We don’t build anymore. The government entities decided to stop new developments almost a year back, but Covid definitely put the brakes on,” Bloomberg mentioned at the time.

Emaar refunds real estate investor over Dubai Creek Tower project

The development conglomerate Emaar Properties has recently refunded an investor, who invested in properties in Dubai Creek Harbour based on the understanding that the property would offer views of the Dubai Creek Tower.

And one of the investors confirmed that Emaar refunded their property purchase in July 2021. “I was on vacation in Dubai, walking in a shopping mall and I see a beautiful scale model of nice apartments around a big tower, “the new spot for tourists in Dubai after the Burj Khalifa”. The realtor saw that I was around and explained everything about the tower, focusing much less on the apartments, everything was around the tower,” the investor said.

The real estate broker made him purchase this property under the belief that it will punctuate views of the Dubai Creek Tower but once the construction stopped at the development, the investor asked for the money back. According to an estimate, While Emaar agreed to refund the purchase, the investor made a loss of almost under $30,000 on this arrangement.

The investor had to lose the sales commission, land registration waiver, and de-registration charges – at a total cost of $29,560.

“I was expecting around 4 per cent Dubai Land, 2 per cent sales commission, 5 per cent VAT for property registration, maybe some extras to get the maximum 15 per cent deduction, not 30 per cent,” the investor said.

According to the Arabian Business story, the investor had first contacted the Dubai Land Department and Emaar’s customer service before resorting to emailing contacts at the property giant directly.

Note:?It is not sure whether other investors have been refunded on similar grounds or not.

Current situation

The matter of fact is that several real estate brokers have still been using Dubai Creek Tower’s images to advertise property projects in Dubai Creek Harbour. The design of the world’s future tallest structure is captivating enough to lure potential investors to purchase properties with views of the tower.

Fam Properties CEO Firas Al Msaddi is convinced and justified the use of the images of Dubai Creek Tower. “Considering Emaar’s track record of constructing the tallest tower in the world, I strongly believe that Emaar will construct and complete the Creek Tower or a better project that is even more attractive and adds more value to the master community of Dubai Creek Harbour as well as enhances the global positioning of Dubai,” he said.

Emaar is a major developer in the master community of Dubai Creek Harbour. To justify the usage of tower images Mr Al Msaddi said, “Moreover, we have never seen any official announcement or communication regarding the refraining from mentioning the Dubai Creek Tower, which is the reason that all agencies in Dubai are still using the images provided by sellers and landlords.”

In accordance with the fact that Emaar has recently taken full charge of the Dubai Creek Harbour from Dubai Holdings. We should hope for an announcement from the premier Emaar Properties regarding the status of the revival of the abandoned project.