Abu Dhabi’s Aldar plans Dubai projects this year after venture with Dubai Holding

Aldar Properties PJSC, the biggest developer in Abu Dhabi, plans to start work on projects in Dubai this year after expanding into the Middle East’s business hub in a joint venture with Dubai Holding.

Logistics and commercial offices look “very attractive in Dubai and these are areas you should expect to see us entering into in the next 12 to 24 months,” Chief Financial Officer Greg Fewer said on Thursday.

Dubai is a “super important market of ours and we see lots of growth there,” he said. “We see well over 20 billion dirhams in growth development value of the projects that we have acquired and partnered with state-owned Dubai Holding,” Fewer said.

A spectacular turnaround in Dubai’s property market has also seen it break a decade-long record for total home sales and lifted rents to unprecedented levels. That bucked the trend in much of the world, where values have largely dropped amid surging interest rates and an increasingly darkening economic outlook.

Beyond the United Arab Emirates, Aldar has gained a foothold in Egypt by acquiring a majority stake in a developer known as Sodic and is also reportedly considering buying a majority stake in Egyptian developer Medinet Nasr Housing. Fewer said he sees “tremendous growth opportunities in Egypt.

The developer generated a full-year profit of $840 million (Dh 3.1 billion), beating analysts’ estimates. The company reported 5 billion dirhams of surplus equity capital, which it aims to deploy to fund a pipeline of acquisitions.

Aldar’s shares have gained 4.7 percent this year compared with a 2.6 percent drop for the benchmark Abu Dhabi stock index.