There’s a lot you can buy for $34 million. In different parts of the world, you can buy fabulous castles, super villas by the beach or magnificent properties for miles. You can buy many sports cars such as, Lamborghini or Rolls-Royce Phantoms. You can even make a private plane for yourself.
But, in Dubai, you can buy a pile of sand, reports cnn.
Okay, not just a pile of sand. The sand in question is an empty plot on the luxury island of Jumeirah Bay, which recently sold for more than $34 million – a staggering price for other parts of the world, where real estate prices can reach as high as “heavenly architecture”.
The undeveloped 24,500 square meter property was sold by Umar Kamani, British entrepreneur and co-founder of clothing retail store, PrettyLittleThing. The sale – for 125 million dirhams (AED) – marks a whopping 242 percent profit over the original purchase price of AED 36.5 million, or just under $10 million, in 2021.
The identity of the buyer is not known, Telegrafi reports.
The plot is one of 128 that were initially made available on the artificial island, which is connected to the mainland via a bridge of about 305 meters. The rising price is a reflection not only of the resilience of some of Dubai’s real estate to downward trends in global economies, but also, brokers say, of what the mega-rich want to spend their dollars on.
“Jumeirah Bay is the most exclusive of franchises,” says Andrew Cummings of Knight Frank Dubai, the real estate agency that handled the sale. “It’s for individuals who only have one question, ‘Which is the most expensive?’ It represents the best in this part of Dubai,” he added.
It is shaped like a ‘seahorse’
The 6.3 million square meter island is shaped like a seahorse and features a five-star hotel built in collaboration with Italian luxury brand Bulgari, which opened in 2017 and was immediately crowned the best new hotel in world.
Jumeirah Bay Island is also home to many sandy beaches and a marina for dozens of yachts, high-end restaurants, a gym and a spa center. A limited number of luxury apartments are also found in the Bulgari hotel complex.
In 2022, two similar plots on the island sold together for AED 180 million, or just over $49 million, signaling that land values are on the rise.
“The land is extremely valued, not only because of the location, very close to Bulgari, but also because of the Four Seasons, as well as the center of Dubai and the business chains,” says Cummings.
“But it’s also because of the privacy and exclusivity that this one island brings, which only has 100 or so plots, compared to the thousands of properties that Palm Jumeirah has,” he declared.
Welcome to Los Angeles
In fact, the Palm Jumeirah is probably best known because of Dubai’s man-made islands. Shaped like a palm tree, it is also the largest artificial island in the world, with about 3.5 square kilometers.
Jumeirah Bay Island, on the other hand, is much smaller at only about 355 square meters and is considered more exclusive.
“The type of properties being built now is unlike anything you’ve seen in Dubai. Jumeirah Bay will look a lot more like Beverly Hills or Los Angeles in the USA,” he explains.
Dubai’s real estate market has been on the rise recently, with 93 sales of properties worth $10 million or more in 2021, up from seven years ago, according to Cummings. In 2022, this number increased to 221 sales. This year has already seen 88 within the first quarter.
The pandemic played an important role in this rise. “Over the last couple of years, people have wanted to move to more spacious places, they’ve wanted to live on the beach,” Cummings says.
“If you look at New York, people moved to the countryside, the same in London and other big cities. In Dubai, we saw that, but also a huge influx of international investors who were attracted by the exceptional handling of the coronavirus, the high vaccination rate, the safety and security – but also really the lifestyle,” he asserted. .
What do you get for $34 million?
The original 128 plots on the island have been reduced to under 100 sosh, due to some investors buying more than one to build larger villas. Most are still empty, and Cummings estimates that only one in ten is currently habitable.
However, he predicts this sale will further increase the value of the lots – as well as that of the buildings that may eventually come on the market once they are built.
“We have one under construction that we expect to bring to market at the end of the year, which will probably ask for over $100 million,” he says.
Current listings show an empty plot for sale on Jumeirah Bay Island for AED 90 million, or about $24.5 million. You can buy a three-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment in the Bulgari complex for AED 60 million, or about $16.3 million.
As for Kaman, he likely has no regrets about losing the plot of land – because he owns one right next to it. Who knows if he will sell it too – at an even higher price.
Sources.
