The Sobha Group believes in being ready ahead of time. With the Dubai property market poised to recover from early 2017, the developer has releases planned in its $4 billion Sobha Hartland project in Mohammed bin Rashid (MBR) Al Maktoum City for the remainder of this year.

This will take the form of 127 luxury semi-detached villas and 92 rowhouses, priced Dh6 million and upwards, and mid-rise apartments. The group has opened 4- and 5-bedroom show villas and a two-bedroom model apartment to attract prospective investors.

The first phase in Sobha Hartland will be delivered in December 2017 and comprises 70 villas and 200 apartments. Construction has begun and hit the 25 per cent mark. The community will eventually include around 6,000 homes.

Around 120 apartments have already been launched in Sobha Hartland Greens, two G+8 towers, of which 80 units have been sold. These include studios, 1-, 2-, 3-bedroom and duplex apartments, with prices starting from Dh1 million and plus.

Although sales have been slow to take off given the negative market sentiment, P.N.C. Menon, the chairman and founder of Sobha Group, is unfazed and remains optimistic that the Dubai property sector has reached the fag end of the negative cycle.

"Real estate is a cyclical business. We have been in negative cycle for two years, it started in the second half of 2014. Our expectation is that a positive cycle will last for around two to 2.5 years. By the beginning of 2017, the market will change. Earlier, a real estate cycle used to last for seven years. When the market picks up, there will be a herd mentality among investors who would end up picking all available apartments," Menon said.

Buyers in the project have mostly been Arabs from the GCC and the Middle East and Indians.

The only freehold community located on the Dubai Water Canal, the 8 million sq ft Sobha Hartland will include two international schools (Hartland International School is already operational), nurseries, healthcare facilities, malls, swimming pool, a yoga centre and a clubhouse.

A community centre is slated to open in 2019 while work has already commenced on the first hotel, which will also be delivered by December 2017. The entire project is slated to be handed over in 2021. The Purple line of the Dubai Metro is slated to pass beneath Hartland.

The Sobha Group is confident of sticking to its delivery timelines since it's a fully backward integrated company, which helps to keep supply chain management under control.

Meanwhile, the developer in a joint venture will soon announce a "budget housing" project in Dubai, where ticket size of units will range from 700 to 800 sq ft and be priced at around Dh1,000 per sq ft. The project will be larger than District One in terms of land area, Menon informed.

The Group also has very few villas for sale in District One, a project it developing in tandem with Meydan, and expects to increase the pace of launches when the market sees an upturn.

Menon was gung-ho in his outlook on the Dubai property market. "Dubai has become a safe haven for a catchment of 3.5 billion people. There's no hope for any other city in this region to recreate what Dubai has in the next 10 years. Unlike others, Dubai always keeps adding to what has already been built - many others head in a southern direction once they reach a certain level. With Dubai, it's the north side."

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Deepthi Nair I cover all things related to real estate in the UAE. Working as a print journalist in Dubai since 2008, I have reported on all the flashy new projects in town. Dubai's passion for setting new records continues to amaze me. I love to do stories that strike a chord with the average expatriate in the UAE. If you have any news related to your community or rents, you know who to get in touch with at Khaleej Times. When I am not working, I travel, catch up with friends, mall trawl, catch up on movies, explore new places in town or just unwind in a spa. Originally from India, I have been a journalist for more than 11 years. Language has been my forte right from school. That's me in a nutshell